Our Bureau
New Delhi
The India-China talks on military de-escalation in Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control has hit a minor roadblock as China is not fully adhering to the agreement on creating a physical buffer zone and going back from certain grey areas, defence ministry sources said.
They said a fresh physical verification of the buffer zone will be made as the previous one shows a partial pullback by China that does not match the agreement at the meeting of the top military commanders. The two sides have to move back 1.5 km on each side of the approximate LAC, which has not happened.
The clear demarcations were the outcome of discussions between the two sides following the bloody confrontation of June 15 in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred and an unspecified number of Chinese troops were killed in the Galwan Valley.
Another meeting at the Lieutenant General level commanders is possible only after some movement is visible on the ground. There are at least two points where the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has not created a buffer. At PP 17-A (Gogra), the distance between the two armies is not complete as it is narrower than the ideal 1.5 km on each side. At Finger 4 on the north block of Pangong Tso, a 135-km-long glacial lake, not much has changed as the PLA is still sitting on the ridge line of a mountain spur.
Each ridge line is identified as a "finger" in the military parlance. India assumes the LAC to be at Finger 8, which is to the east of Finger 4. India was patrolling till Finger 8, but the Chinese are not allowing patrols to pass now. On July 10, the PLA had moved away its boats and thinned out troops, but its troops still occupy the ridge line. India wants the PLA to move back till Finger 8.
'Bharat' drones for China border
Amid the ongoing boundary dispute between India and China, DRDO has provided its indigenously developed drone named Bharat to the Indian Army for carrying out accurate surveillance in high altitude areas and mountainous terrain along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh. The Bharat drones have been developed by a Chandigarh-based laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation. The small yet powerful drones, a DRDO source said, can be listed among "world's most agile and lightest surveillance drone". They work with great accuracy, they said.
Navy's MiG-29K to fly over Himalayas
While Indian Navy's P-8I surveillance planes are carrying out frequent sweeps over the Eastern Ladakh sector, the Navy's maritime fighter jets MiG-29K will also be deployed in the Northern sector for operations. The deployment of the naval fighter aircraft at the Indian Air Force bases is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directives for enhancing jointness between the three services and Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat's call for the possibility of deployment of maritime combat aircraft along the northern or western borders with the Air Force.
US leaders slam Chinese aggression against India
Washington: The US House of Representatives has unanimously passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), slamming China's aggression against India in the Galwan Valley and its growing territorial assertiveness in and around disputed areas like the South China Sea.
The NDAA amendment, moved by Congressman Steve Chabot along with Indian-American lawmaker Ami Bera and passed on Monday, said that India and China should work towards de-escalating the situation along the Line of Actual Control.
The bipartisan amendment states Congress' opposition to Chinese aggression against India in the Galwan Valley on the India-China border, and expresses its concern toward the growing territorial assertiveness of China. China has used the distraction of the coronavirus to attempt to seize territory belonging to India, as well as to press its territorial claims in the South China Sea, it said. China claims almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea as its sovereign territory.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper on Tuesday described the Chinese military’s activities in the region “destabilising” and said America was “very closely” monitoring the situation along the Indo-China LAC.
