India, China promise peace after border clash
Indian and Chinese troops remain in a standoff at their contested Himalayan border, days after both sides promised peace following their worst military clash in 45 years.
About 50 square kilometres of land earlier controlled by India in the Pangong Tso area — a glacial lake at a height of about 4,350 metres in the Tibetan plateau — is now being held by the Chinese, Indian officials with knowledge of the matter said. Both sides lay claim to the area in the Ladakh region including the Galwan valley that witnessed fierce fighting earlier this month, which led to the killing of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops.
There is another incursion in the Depsang Plains — about 120 kilometres from the Galwan river — where Chinese troops have pitched tents and other infrastructure, the officials said, asking not to be identified citing rules on speaking to the media.
According to some Indian media reports high resolution satellite images appear to show Chinese structures on both sides of the shared border in the Galwan valley that were previously not there.
China’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond when contacted for comment on a public holiday. India on Thursday accused Chinese forces for the escalation of tension and the violence on the border.
“The conduct of Chinese forces this year has been in complete disregard of all mutually agreed norms,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivasatava said in New Delhi. “The deployment of a large body of troops and changes in behaviour have also been aggravated by unjustified and untenable claims.”
The fresh round of tensions comes after a commander- level meeting on Monday ended with an agreement to de-escalate the situation. For more than six weeks, soldiers from India and China have been engaged in a standoff at least two locations along the Line of Actual Control — the 3,488 kilometre unmarked boundary between them, and have rushed additional troops to the border.
The officials said the presence of Chinese troops at Pangong Tso allows them easy access to routes used by the People’s Liberation Army in the 1962 India- China war to enter southern Ladakh which witnessed bitter fights during the short conflict.
If the Chinese military is in control of the Galwan Valley, then it can threaten the road to Daulet Beg Oldie, which is a concern, said Ian Hall, professor of international relations at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, and author of ‘Modi and the Reinvention of Indian Foreign Policy.’
“This crisis is not over, and it is going to take a combination of military resolve and diplomatic finesse to keep the situation stable, hold India’s line, and avoid a political backlash at home,” Hall said.