At the 16th India-China senior military commanders meeting tomorrow, India will urge the PLA Air Force to uphold the 10 kilometre no-fly zone agreement along the Ladakh Line of Actual Control (LAC), even as it requests the withdrawal of forward deployed PLA troops from patrolling point 15 (Khugrang Nullah).
Since the Chinese Army restored the April 2020 status quo ante at Gogra-Hot Springs in August 2021, there has been no progress in the PLA disengagement. After meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 7 in Bali, concurrent with the G-20 Foreign Ministers meeting, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar firmly raised the issue of boundary resolution.
This led to the decision to hold senior military commanders talks at Chushul on the Indian side on Sunday.
The Indian Army is requesting not only a withdrawal from the PPT 15 friction point but also the return of patrolling privileges in the Demchok and Daulet Beg Oldi (DBO) sectors’ Charding Nullah Junction and Depsang Bulge.
India has made the withdrawal the primary requirement for reestablishing normal relations with the Xi Jinping government and supports the continuation of the military discussion with China to resolve friction issues.
China, on the other hand, wants the smoothing out of tense situations to coincide with the improvement of the two countries’ bilateral relations with a focus on economic cooperation.
Although observers in Beijing are optimistic about the outcome of the conference tomorrow, it will be difficult for China to leave PPT 15 because the current PLA deployment is on the shortest path between Gogra-Hot Springs and the Galwan sector.
