China and India to move troops ‘in batches’ from disputed border
- Military commanders aim to prevent accidental clashes but without political settlement stand-off is expected to continue
- Agreement follows deadliest skirmish in decades over disputed border in the Himalayas
Diplomatic observers said the agreement would prevent accidental clashes but did not mean a retreat of military deployment by the two countries along the Himalayan border and the stand-off would continue.
Nationalist tabloid Global Times, affiliated with People’s Daily, reported late on Thursday that both sides had agreed to take measures to ease tensions in the border areas, citing an unnamed source close to the Chinese border troops. The personnel would disengage “in batches”, according to the report, which observers said meant a withdrawal from different areas by the various groups.
Major General Liu Lin, commander of China’s South Xinjiang military region, and Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, commander of India’s Leh-based 14 Corps, met in Chushul, Ladakh, on Tuesday for the third time in a month. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said “positive progress” had been made to reduce tensions and close communication between the two sides would continue.
The Galwan Valley incident disrupted implementation of an earlier agreement to disengage, reached during the first meeting between the two generals on June 6.
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Sun Shihai, a researcher on China’s relations with South Asia at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said accidental and fatal clashes on the border could be avoided with the disengagement, but it was not a political settlement to end the stand-off.