India-China to discuss Gogra-Hot Springs disengagement, Depsang is a 2013 legacy

Both India and China have deployed three divisions of infantry troops along with armour, artillery and rocket support elements in East Ladakh. There has been no accretion of force from the Indian side on Ladakh LAC in 2021.

Published on: Jun 29, 2021, 12:54:07 IST

By Shishir Gupta, Hindustan Times, New Delhi

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Although the dates of the agreed 12th round of India-China senior commanders dialogue will be fixed through military channels, the discussion will be only limited to disengagement and de-escalation of both the armies from general areas Gogra and Hot Springs with Depsang Bulge to be dealt by local commanders as it was a 2013 legacy issue.

File photo of Army Chief General MM Naravane and 14 Corps Commander Lt Gen PGK Menon at Leh airport in Ladakh.

According to South Block officials, the decision to discuss Hot Springs (patrolling 14) and Gogra (patrolling point 17A) was taken at the virtual meeting of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India China border affairs on June 25.

The two friction points, which are near the Kugrang river and Chang Chemmo river respectively, were transgressed by the PLA on May 17-18, 2020 apart from north banks of Pangong Tso.

The 2013 friction point of Depsang Bulge, south of Daulet Beg Oldi, will not be taken up by the senior military commanders but dealt at the local commanders level. In April 2013, the PLA transgressed through the Raki and Jeevan nullah with the aim of blocking Indian Army from patrolling points 10 to 13 A within the bulge area.

While disengagement has taken place from north and south banks of Pangong Tso, de-escalation between the two armies is work in progress due to mutual mistrust and suspicion after the PLA 2020 transgressions.

The Indian Army and PLA Army both have three divisions of troops with support elements all along the 1597 kilometre Line of Actual Control (LAC) in East Ladakh with artillery, armour and rocket elements in addition. The Indian Army troops led by Lt General P G K Menon of 14 Corps are on constant vigil and are conducting patrols within limits defined by the Cabinet Secretary in 1976. There has been no accretion of troops from the Indian side since August 29-31, 2020 incident on south banks of Pangong Tso.

While the Army is monitoring the Chinese activity along the LAC, the Indian Navy is keeping a close watch on PLA warship from Gulf of Aden to Malacca Straits including south Indian Ocean. Apart from some research activity in deep south Indian Ocean which is being monitored, the Chinese ships are confined around Gulf of Aden or Makran Coast off Pakistan.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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