JK News Today
Jammu, September 09:
India and China announced on Friday that the disengagement of their troops from Gogra-Hot Springs , which began on Thursday, will be completed by September 12 and both sides have agreed to take forward talks to resolve the remaining issues on the Line of Actual Control ( LAC).
This is a big milestone in defusing military tensions gripping eastern Ladakh region now almost for two and a half years , as there always lurked a fear of the tensions erupting into bloody clashes as it happened in June 2020 when India lost 20 soldiers and China four at Galwan Valley.
The two sides on Thursday announced the disengagement of the troops in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs also known as Patrolling Point-15 or PP-15, in line with the consensus reached at a meeting of senior military commanders on July 17.
“As per the agreement, the disengagement process in this area started on September 8, 2022, at 8:30am and will be completed by September 12, 2022,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.
“With the resolution of the stand-off at PP-15, both sides mutually agreed to take the talks forward and resolve the remaining issues along LAC and restore peace and tranquillity in India-China border areas,” he said.
The development at PP-15 triggered speculation about a possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit at Samarkand next week.
Hot Springs is only the third friction point in the Ladakh sector of the LAC where the two sides have agreed to withdraw frontline troops after 16 round of talks since the military standoff emerged in the open in April-May 2020. They earlier withdrew troops from the north and south banks of Pangong Lake and at Gogra.
Both sides have arrayed almost 50,000 troops each in the Ladakh sector.
In New Delhi , MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said the 16th round of talks between the corps commanders of India and China armies was held at the Chushul Moldo meeting point on July 17.
“Since then, the two sides maintained regular contact to build on the progress achieved during the talks to resolve the relevant issues along the LAC in the Western Sector of India-China border areas,” he said.
“As a result, both sides have now agreed on disengagement in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs (PP-15),” he said.
The two sides have agreed to “cease forward deployments in this area in a phased, coordinated and verified manner, resulting in the return of the troops of both sides to their respective areas”, Bagchi added.
The two sides have agreed that all temporary structures and other allied infrastructure created in the area by both sides “will be dismantled and mutually verified”.
“The landforms in the area will be restored to the pre-stand-off period by both sides,” Bagchi said.
“The agreement ensures that the LAC in this area will be strictly observed and respected by both sides and that there will be no unilateral change in status quo,” he said.
