New Delhi: On the northern and southern banks of the placid waters of the picturesque Pangong Tso in eastern Ladakh, soldiers from the infantry and armoured corps from Asia’s two biggest militaries stand just 500 metres from each other as of Tuesday after ten rounds of senior commander level talks between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“Till the process of disengagement began (from February 10), the two armies were dangerously close in eyeball-to-eyeball situations with just about 30-40 metres between them. The mind can play tricks in those heights and hostile terrain. That was dangerously close and anything could happen. But now, the armies have retraced their steps and about 500 metres separate them. Eyeball-to-eyeball faceoff situation has been averted,” an official source familiar with the developments told ETV Bharat.
“But what marks the success of the ten rounds of talks is the fact that any more Galwan-type violent incidents have been prevented. But at the same time, the withdrawn troops lie in positions from where they can rush back to the vacated positions in less than half an hour.”
“But the commander-level military talks are just one dimension of the India-China negotiations. There is the WMCC (Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination for India-China Border Affairs) level, Special Representative talks at the NSA level, and most importantly, back channel talks which are taking place often at any given point of time at various levels including the political level,” the source added.