Three Months Since Ladakh Tensions Began, China Refusing To Return Land Once Patrolled By Indians

4 July, 2020

Reports make it clear that Beijing is not willing to restore the earlier status quo.

If you believed Beijing, it would seem as if most concerns between India and China have been resolved. This despite that fact that soldiers died in June in the first fatal clashes between the two nations in four decades.

“The front-line frontier defence forces of the two countries have disengaged in most locations, and the current situation continues to develop in the direction of easing and cooling,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Wang Wenbin on July 28.

Reports on the actual situation at the disputed border, as well as the Indian Army’s preparations for the months ahead, offer a more frank picture. Even as headlines in India focus on the inauguration of the Ram temple, the facts suggest that nearly three months after the first tensions along the disputed India-China border, Beijing is unwilling to return to the previous status quo and remains in possession of land that Indian troops used to patrol.

‘Disengagement Not Completed’

“There has been some progress made towards this objective but the disengagement process has as yet not been completed,” said India’s External Affairs Ministry in a statement on July 30. “The Senior Commanders of the two sides will be meeting in the near future to work out steps in this regard.”

As per the Indian Express, troops on both sides have fully disengaged from points in the Hot Springs are and the Galwan Valley of Eastern Ladakh, after scuffles and violence beginning May 5. The Galwan Valley site was the location of the fatal conflict on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, with Beijing not having revealed how many of its troops were killed.

Courtesy: Opera News/ scroll.in