After Ladakh, China also wants no-patrol zones elsewhere along its LAC with India

Beijing wants New Delhi to accept moratoriums on patrolling, not only around the remaining face-off points along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, but also around the other trouble spots along the stretches of the disputed boundary in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Beijing has of late mooted the proposal for creation of ‘buffer zones’ with moratoriums on patrolling all along the LAC, particularly around the trouble spots, where India and China have differences in perception about the alignment of the line serving as the de facto boundary between the two nations. New Delhi, however, has not yet responded to the proposal, as it has been insisting on first completely resolving the three-year-long military stand-off along the de facto boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh, sources told DH on Wednesday.

The issue may be discussed when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold a bilateral meeting with his counterpart in the Chinese Government, Li Shangfu, on the sideline of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in New Delhi this week, said the sources, aware of the engagements between the two neighbours.

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Beijing has been claiming that normalcy has already returned along the western sector of China’s LAC with India. It also conveyed to New Delhi through diplomatic channels that creation of similar buffer zones with moratorium on patrolling in the middle and the eastern sector of the LAC could also avoid flashpoints along the entire stretch of the disputed boundary between the two nations, including in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, according to the sources in New Delhi.

Even as the soldiers of the two nations remained engaged in a stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh over the past three years, China has been continuing building military infrastructure all along its disputed boundary with India, not only in the western sectors, but also in the middle and the eastern sectors.

The Indian Army soldiers had on December 9, 2022 foiled an attempt by the Chinese PLA to change the status quo along the LAC – the de facto boundary between the two nations – at Yangtse near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. China of late renamed 11 places in Arunachal Pradesh in Mandarin and Tibetan languages to assert its claim on the northeastern state of India, just as it had done in 2017 and 2021.

There have been clashes between the soldiers of the two nations even at Naku La in northern Sikkim in May 2020 and January 2021.

The meeting between Singh and Li this week is going to be the second such engagement between the defence ministers of the two nations after April-May 2020, when the Indian Army’s move to resist the aggressive attempt by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to change the status quo along the LAC and to push the line westward resulted in a military stand-off in eastern Ladakh. Singh had met Li’s predecessor Wei Fenghe in Moscow in September 2020.

Negotiations between the two sides resulted in mutual withdrawal of frontline troops by the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA from four places along the LAC in eastern Ladakh – Galwan Valley, northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra Post and Hot Springs. Each disengagement deal, however, involved creation of a “no patrol zone” and raised questions if India had to leave vast swathes of land well within the territory claimed by it vulnerable to future aggression by China and if they would make the restoration of the pre-April-2020 status quo impossible.

When the Indian and Chinese military commanders met last Sunday and had the 18th round of negotiations to resolve the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, they again weighed options of creation of “no patrol zones” in the remaining face-off points, like Depsang and Demchok, for mutual withdrawal of troops. China continues to have its PLA troops deployed in Depsang well inside the territory of India and they continue to block the Indian Army’s access to Patrolling Points 10, 11, 12, 12A and 13. A face-off is also continuing near Charding-Ninglung Nala in the south of Demchok. The meeting however ended without any immediate breakthrough and, unlike the previous two rounds of talks between Indian and Chinese commanders, without a joint statement.