Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
Just a day before the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Russia, China announced in Beijing that the tension in Eastern Ladakh will end. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that after several rounds of talks, an agreement has been reached towards restoring normal situation on the border with India. Both countries have agreed to withdraw their respective armies on the LAC.
On behalf of China’s Foreign Ministry, it was said that talks were going on between India and China at diplomatic and military level for a long time. In these meetings, a roadmap has been prepared to end the ongoing tension on LAC. Now it will be gradually implemented in the coming times. This means that the situation of May 2020 will be restored in eastern Ladakh. Soldiers of China and India will return to their barracks. The armies of both the countries will patrol their respective areas as before.
India and China are two big countries of BRICS. By ending the ongoing tension on their border, both the countries have given a big message to the countries of the world where there is a situation of war. Although the details of the agreement have not been made public, it is learned that according to the agreement, Indian and Chinese armies will now be able to patrol within their respective borders in the areas of Depsang Plains and Demchok. In the agreement reached regarding patrolling on LAC i.e. the Line of Actual Control, soldiers of both the countries will be able to patrol their respective areas twice a month. To ensure that there is no conflict during patrolling, it has been decided that the patrolling teams of both the countries will not have more than 15 soldiers and the soldiers of both the countries will patrol only by staying 200 to 300 meters away from the LAC.
Under the agreement, before sending the patrolling party, the commanders of China and India will talk to each other and co-ordinate with each other. The overall effort is to ensure that such a situation does not arise again like what happened in Galwan in 2020. There is a border dispute going on between China and India in Ladakh for the last four years. In May 2020, there was a violent clash between the soldiers of the two countries in the Galwan Valley in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred and many Chinese soldiers were killed. After that, in June-July 2020, there was disengagement between the two countries in Galwan and Hot Springs areas. In 2021, China and India had also withdrawn their troops in Gogra and Pangong Tso areas of Ladakh, but at Depsang Plains and Demchok border points, the soldiers of China and India have been standing face to face for four years. During this period, there were continuous talks between the military commanders and diplomats of India and China and now an agreement has also been reached between the two countries regarding patrolling in Depsang Plains and Demchok. Indian soldiers will now be able to patrol Patrolling Points 10 to 13 in Depsang, which was closed for the last four years. China will withdraw its troops from Depsang and will demolish the structures built there.
According to this agreement, both the countries will withdraw their troops from LAC in winter. For better coordination, there will be a meeting every month between the commanders of China and India. There is a need to understand the meaning of the agreement reached between India and China regarding the border. First thing, now the Chinese army will retreat from the areas which it had captured 4 years ago. The situation of April 2020 on LAC will be restored. A plan has been prepared to remove whatever tension there is regarding the border dispute between the two countries.
Secondly, the impact on mutual trade between the two countries due to deteriorating relations between India and China will also gradually end. There are many industries in India which are dependent on China for raw materials, now their problems will be reduced. Thirdly, in India Rahul Gandhi repeatedly raised the issue of China. Owaisi also repeatedly talked about China’s occupation. Now these leaders will not get the spice to talk about China. Fourthly, it seems that Putin has played a big role in reducing tension and improving relations between Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping. (Rajat Sharma)
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