Military top guns to talk pullback after green signal by foreign mins
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 11
India and China, for now, are to operate through Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on India-China border affairs to decide the next steps of the pullback of troops from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
The WMCC is a group which has representatives of foreign ministries and militaries of both sides. Military Commanders of the two sides, who last met on February 20, will meet next after an understanding at the WMCC is reached on the next steps of the process.
There has been visible disengagement of Indian and Chinese troops along both banks of the Pangong Tso, a 135-km glacial lake, along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. The next two steps called de-escalation and de-induction — which means pulling back troops and war equipment to the pre-April 2020 home bases — have not yet begun in the area.
The need to go to the WMCC arose as the military commander-level could not arrive at a time-line of the phased de-escalation and de-induction. There has been no forward movement on the two issues, said sources, adding lack of trust on either side.
The first phase of the disengagement process commenced on February 10, as both sides commenced withdrawal from the banks of Pangong Tso. It is stalled at the next phase of de-escalation and de-induction. The matters of disengagement at Depsang, Gogra or Hot Springs were slated to come up in subsequent talks. The WMCC will discuss this. Minister of External Affairs had spoken to his counterpart Wang Yi. The military is cautious as the snowmelt will open up several mountain passes by April. Army Chief Gen MM Naravane, speaking at an event of a think tank in New Delhi in February, sounded a word of caution: “We now have to go on to the stage of de-escalation, then deinduction of troops.” The present positions of troops, tanks or guns are not face to face, but they are within the striking range of artillery fire and from where rapid redeployment is possible.
Snowmelt to open passes by April
- The military is cautious as the snowmelt will open up several mountain passes by April. Army Chief Gen MM Naravane, speaking at an event of a think tank in New Delhi in February, sounded a word of caution: “We now have to go on to the stage of de-escalation, then deinduction of troops. We have to be wary and cautious.”
- The present positions of troops, tanks or guns are not face to face, but they are within the striking range of artillery fire and from where rapid redeployment is possible.
2nd squadron of Rafale in a month
The Indian Air Force will by mid-April raise the second squadron of the Rafale fighter jets at Hasimara in northern part of West Bengal. Five jets are expected to arrive in India from France and these will be based in Hasimara. The first squadron is based in Ambala.
