No end to tense Ladakh standoff in sight as India, China hold ground

The Indian army, which has matched the Chinese PLA in terms of manpower and resources at the standoff points, has prepped for a long haul and inducted more troops in the theatre.

Updated on: Jun 17, 2020, 12:00:49 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Shishir Gupta

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

There has been no change in the ground situation or lowering of guard by either sides at the four standoff points between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh sector’s Galwan valley and Pangong Tso areas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reviewed the situation along the LAC at a high-level meeting this week. (Reuters)

Both sides are holding firm and it is not possible to indicate at this time when the status quo ante will be restored, people familiar with the development told Hindustan Times on Thursday.

Yesterday, the Chinese foreign ministry had played down the tense standoff along the Line of Actual Control, insisting that the situation was stable and controllable and the two sides were in touch with each other at different levels.

The seemingly conciliatory approach articulated by the Chinese side has not reflected in the ground situation.

Three of the standoff points are located around Galwan valley and the fourth, near Pangong lake. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army had moved soldiers to close to these four standoff points that are seen to be an effort to stop India from upgrading its border infrastructure, particularly 60-metre long bridge across the Galwan rivulet or nallah and an observation post near the Pangong lake.

The Indian army has deployed reinforcements at the four standoff points without halting work on the border infrastructure work including the concrete Galwan bridge being built as part of a 255-km road to access Daulat Beg Oldie, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass.

Also Watch | China’s muscle flexing explained and how India can tame the dragon l In Focus

“Nobody can question India’s right to build roads, bridges or airfields in its own territory. The infrastructure upgrade is continuing and will not be paused in eastern Ladakh,” an Indian official said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reviewed the situation along the LAC at a high-level meeting this week.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and Chief of Defence Services General Bipin Rawat are overseeing the Indian efforts at multiple levels. On their radar is also the activity on the western border with Islamabad after reports that the Pakistan army had moved troops in the neighbouring Gilgit Baltistan region that it illegally occupies.

The Indian army, which has matched the Chinese PLA in terms of manpower and resources at the standoff points, has prepped for a long haul and inducted more troops in the theatre. Another set of soldiers are undergoing the acclimatization process to give the soldiers posted at the standoff sites a break before returning.

Officials said China on the other hand, has also beefed up its defences in Aksai Chin area, both to handle ground and aerial adversaries.

It has upgraded its dual-use military and civil airfield at Ngari Günsa airport about 60 km from the LAC as part of this exercise where the PLA’s air force has been flying J 11 jets, widely considered to be China’s version of the Russian Sukhoi 27 fighters.

The other airfields in the vicinity of LAC are Yarkand 320 km from the LAC, Hotan is 240 km, Kashgar is 450 km while Korla is 600 km from the LAC.

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

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather and major national developments.