‘Talks on at LAC at battalion, brigade levels’
The Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China have established various channels of communication at the battalion and brigade levels in the strategic Ladakh region to prevent smaller incidents escalating into bigger ones along the LAC, Northern Army commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi said on Friday.
He said the past practice of “body pushing”, or scuffles that broke out when rival patrols came face to face, has been stopped. Addressing reporters on the sidelines of North Tech Symposium Seminar at the headquarters of the Northern Command in Udhampur, Lt Gen Dwivedi said, “The situation on the LAC as of today is stable but it is in the state of heightened alert. Why? Because we don’t want the situation to be repeated, which took place in April 2020. As a result, the force and equipment deployment is calibrated, and we will make sure that any kind of misadventure by the adversary doesn’t take place again”.
“To make sure that there is no irritant, which is likely to become a violent situation, what we have done is that firstly at the lower level, that is, battalion and brigade level, now we have opened up various channels of communication and we have regular hotline exchanges,” he said.
The lingering border standoff between India and China is in its third year, with a full resolution not in sight even though the two sides have had partial success in disengaging rival soldiers from some friction areas on the LAC, and talks are on to end the deadlock that has cast a shadow over the bilateral relationship.
Despite disengagement of soldiers from Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso and Gogra-Hot Springs area, the two armies still have around 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.
The Indian Army and PLA have held 15 rounds of talks to cool border tensions, but problems at Patrol Point-15 near Kongka La, Depsang Bulge in Daulet Beg Oldi sector and Charding Nullah Junction in Demchok sector are still on the negotiating table. “As far as the talks go, the Indian Army has achieved what it had to. We could be in the current status till perpetuity until there is political rapprochement between the two countries,” Lieutenant General Rakesh Sharma (retd), a military affairs expert and former commander of the Leh-based HQs 14 Corps, said last month.
“We have stopped the system of that body push etc, which used to be there earlier and no physical contact is being ensured,” Lt Gen Dwivedi said.