Resumption of coordinated patrolling in the Depsang and Demchok sectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh will begin only next week according to indications available now.
While Indian patrols can access Patrol Points 10 to 13 at any time now—following the completion of disengagement and dismantling of temporary structures on both sides in Depsang—the process in Demchok is taking longer due to adverse weather conditions. This delay may last a few more days.
Once the process is over, both sides will carry out joint verification, and then the pre-2020 practice of allowing each other’s patrols and access to grazing areas for the local shepherds will restart.
The next phase, that of initiating coordinated patrols, may therefore start only after 3rd November. Coordinated patrols, according to the understanding reached between the two sides, will involve providing advance information to the other side about the date, time and size of the patrols. India’s primary demand of restoring the right to patrol up to Patrolling Points 10 to 13 near Depsang and at a point called CNN close to Demchok beyond a place called Y junction has been met under the agreement reached at dawn on 21st October.
Intense Parleys to Break LAC Logjam
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced the disengagement agreement that afternoon in Delhi. Subsequently, he also mentioned—in passing—that the agreement was concluded ‘very early morning’ on 21st October. What he left unsaid was the intensity and duration of the talks that preceded the disengagement at Demchok and Depsang. Apparently, the Indian and Chinese delegations negotiated continuously for over 10 days, and the talks often lasted—as has been the practice since June 2020—more than 12 hours! The urgency was, in retrospect, because scheduling the Modi-Xi bilateral meeting at Kazan in Russia depended on the outcome that India wanted as a pre-requisite.
As already reported by BharatShakti, India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval had made it clear to Chinese counterpart Foreign Minister Wang Yi in mid-September during their meeting at Moscow on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs’ conference that without restoration of the pre-2020 arrangement at Depsang and Demchok, India would not move forward on other aspects of the relationship.
The military-diplomatic teams from both sides began discussing the details of the agreement after Doval and Wang reached a consensus on the sequencing proposed by India. Once the agreement was finalized and reviewed at the highest levels of government, the bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi became a matter of scheduling during their brief visit to Kazan, Russia. This meeting ultimately occurred on October 23 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.
Modi and Xi, as is well-known by now, have directed their respective Special Representatives (Doval from India and Wang from China) to resume their dialogue to take forward the thaw and start taking the next steps. As analysts have pointed out, these are the early days of any ‘normalisation’ of the India-China relationship. At best the current step makes sure there are no violent faceoffs or clashes between Indian and Chinese troops deployed on the border.
Meanwhile, according to Army sources, sweets may be exchanged at multiple places along the LAC on Thursday, on the auspicious day of Diwali.
Ravi Shankar
