Standoff along LAC escalates

Fresh incursion by Chinese troops escalated the standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.

Withdrawal of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police (PAP) from the Indian side of the LAC at Chumar in north-eastern Ladakh had raised hopes for an early resolution of the standoff. 

However, over 80 Chinese soldiers returned to two other locations along the LAC in the same area. While 35 PLA and PAP personnel took position on a hillock on Friday, about 50 more arrived on Saturday. The fresh incursion took place at a location very close to the site of the earlier transgression, sources in New Delhi said.

Chinese soldiers came in nine military vehicles on Saturday and immediately took position about 100 metres away from where the Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) stood guard. Chinese helicopters also started air-dropping food packets to the PLA and PAP on Saturday.

The Army and ITBP had not returned from the position after the PLA and PAP retreated from an eyeball-to-eyeball situation late on Thursday. Sources said the Army and the ITBP had been instructed to stay put for some more time as New Delhi had anticipated re-escalation of the stand-off after China’s President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing.

With tension along the border simmering, New Delhi stepped up its diplomatic contacts with Beijing to resolve the situation.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday said that it was pursuing the process initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and Thursday, when he conveyed his serious concerns over the standoff to the Chinese president during their meetings in Ahmedabad and New Delhi.

“I assure you that the process that was initiated by the prime minister is being carefully followed and (we are) awaiting an outcome,” Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said on Saturday. 

He said that New Delhi had already taken up the issue with Beijing “at the highest level”.

Sources said that New Delhi had activated the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, an arrangement put in place in January 2012 for diplomats of the two countries to work together and deal with any face-offs between soldiers along the LAC.

The joint secretary (East Asia) in the MEA and his counterpart in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese government head the mechanism.

“Diplomacy is not instant coffee. It works in ways that it is difficult for the people who are not engaged with it to perceive and understand what is happening. You are aware that India at the highest-level has taken it up and also what our public statements are. Therefore, allow this process to function,” said Akbaruddin.