SRINAGAR, India (AP) – China and India are withdrawing troops from the front line of disputed portions of their mountainous border, where they have been at an impasse for months, the two countries said.
Troops began withdrawing on Wednesday on the southern and northern shores of Lake Pangong in the Ladakh region, they said.
India and China will remove advanced deployments “in a phased, coordinated and verified manner,” Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on Thursday.
China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that both sides had begun a “synchronized and organized” shutdown.
The tense stalemate high in the Karakoram mountains started in early May, when Indian and Chinese soldiers ignored each other’s repeated verbal warnings, triggering a discussion of shouting, rock throwing and fighting on the north shore of Lake Pangong, where disputed crests push into the eight-way glacial lake and they are referred to as “fingers”.
In June, it climbed and spread north into Depsang and the Galwan valley, where India built a military all-weather road along the disputed border. Tensions erupted in hand-to-hand combat with clubs, stones and fists that left 20 Indian soldiers dead. China is also believed to have suffered casualties, but gave no details.
Since then, the two countries have deployed tens of thousands of soldiers supported by artillery, tanks and fighters along the de facto border called the Royal Control Line, or LAC, with troops preparing for the harsh winter.
Each side accused the other of instigating the violence. They initiated military and diplomatic talks about ending the crisis, which dramatically changed the India-China relationship.
China, in its brief statement, did not provide details of the shutdown. Singh said that “the Chinese side will maintain its troop presence in the north bank area east of Finger 8.”
India claims all eight fingers on Lake Pangong, but its military presence extends to finger 3. The area between fingers 4 and 8 was traditionally patrolled on both sides before the situation escalated in May, although China claimed to area.
According to India, Chinese soldiers occupied the area between fingers 4 and 8 last year. India responded in August by occupying at least three uninhabited mountain tops on the southern shore of the lake, during which both sides fired warning shots for the first time in 45 years, raising the specter of a large-scale military conflict. and leading Beijing to furiously demand the withdrawal of Indian troops.
“Conversely, Indian troops will be based at their permanent base” near Finger 3, Singh said. “A similar action would be carried out in the south bank area on both sides.”
Singh said the two sides also agreed to a “temporary moratorium on military activities” on the lake’s northern shore. “Patrolling will resume only when both sides reach an agreement in the diplomatic and military talks that will take place later,” he said.
Lieutenant-General DS Hooda, who was head of the Northern Command of the Armed Forces of India from 2014 to 2016, under which the Ladakh region falls, said the agreement “is a significant step towards comprehensive disengagement and search for some solution to the problems existing between the two countries. ”
He said it would take a while for both nations to rebuild trust and establish new agreements. “The ongoing crisis has generated great distrust and a complete breakdown of the agreements and protocols that maintained peace along the line of control,” he said.
But some Indian experts said the development meant that the Indian government accepted Beijing’s position on the contested territory.
“Talking about mutual withdrawal from Pangong’s positions is just a smokescreen!”, Tuitou Ajai Shukla, a former Indian military officer and defense commentator.
“From the beginning, China’s real military objective in East Ladakh has been Depsang. There is not a word to be heard about this, ”he said.
Depsang, one of the most strategically important areas in the region, is where India has the highest airstrip in the world and where, according to Shukla, the Chinese military entered 15 to 18 kilometers (9 to 11 miles) within areas controlled by the Indians.
The LAC separates the Chinese and Indian-controlled territories from Ladakh in the west to the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety. LAC is broken in parts where the Himalayan nations, Nepal and Bhutan, border China. It divides areas of physical control instead of territorial claims.
India claims the Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin plateau as part of the Ladakh region. According to India, the control line is 3,488 kilometers (2,167 miles) long, while China says it is considerably shorter.
Relations between the two countries have been strained, in part due to the border dispute. They waged a border war in 1962 that reached Ladakh and ended in an uncomfortable truce. Since then, troops have protected the indefinite border and occasionally fought. They agreed not to attack with firearms.
The current impasse is over disputed portions of an immaculate mountain landscape that has a glacier that feeds one of the largest irrigation systems in the world and is a critical link in China’s massive “Belt and Road” infrastructure project.
India unilaterally declared Ladakh a federal territory and separated it from disputed Kashmir in August 2019, ending the status of semi-autonomous Kashmir administered by India. He also promised to retake the Aksai Chin plateau.
According to some Indian and Chinese strategic experts, India’s action has exacerbated existing tensions with China, leading to the border clash in June.
China was one of the first countries to strongly condemn the measure in international forums, including the UN Security Council.
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Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.