India and China finally agreed to move away their armies

India and China finally agreed to move away
from the position of keeping an eye on the Line of Actual Control in East Ladakh.  However, Army Chief MM Narwane, who visited Ladakh today to see the Indian troops wounded in the clashes, made it clear that there would be no relaxation on the part of the border guards even if there was no provocation from India.

 Lieutenant General Harinder Singh and Chinese Major General Liu Lin met at the Chusul-Moldo border yesterday.  According to military sources, the 11-hour marathon meeting decided to withdraw from the areas where the two countries' armies were facing each other in the Line of Actual Control of East Ladakh.  Extra troops and artillery will be removed.  However, both countries agreed that the work was time consuming.  A source at the Center said such a move, though small, was important in restoring peace on the border.

 Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said today that necessary steps would be taken to cool the situation.  China welcomed the agreement reached at the corps commander level meeting yesterday.  Significantly, Delhi did not make any official statement on yesterday's meeting till one o'clock today.  The Indian Army opened its mouth at noon after learning of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's statement.  According to sources, the South Bloc wanted to see how positively Beijing was looking at the meeting.

 However, there are doubts about the success of the large number of Chinese army bunkers and surveillance posts in the Pangong Lake area.  In particular, the two armies have been patrolling the disputed area from Finger 4 to Finger 8 for so long, but now it has become virtually impossible for India to go on patrol.  Former military officials have previously questioned how much they would like to leave the area in the way the Chinese military has built infrastructure and bases in the area.  Army sources, however, said that everything depends on the direction of the situation in the coming days.  Earlier, a meeting between the two countries' army commanders on June 7 agreed to ease tensions on the border and withdraw troops from the Line of Actual Control.  Colonel Santosh Babu and his fellow soldiers were attacked on the night of the 15th while trying to see if China had broken their tent as promised.  20 soldiers were killed.

 Therefore, India is not in favor of taking any risk on the issue of border patrols, even though tensions were eased at yesterday's meeting.  Now the Chinese army is behind the rocks, higher than the Indian army in the disputed areas of Galwan.  India has installed thermal imaging devices along the Line of Control to monitor them in the dark of night.

 The army chief made it clear in a meeting with 14 Corps troops in Leh today that the Chinese military should step up surveillance if necessary to prevent it from infiltrating anywhere else.  He will inspect the border situation in the Nobra sector tomorrow.