New Delhi: There can be two reasons why the PLA called up its Indian Army counterparts to confirm the fifth commander-level meeting in east Ladakh all of a sudden late on Saturday evening.
One, the PLA establishment was busy with the hectic country-wide events organized to mark the PLA’s raising day on Friday.
Two, in adherence to Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu’s adage of making the move when the adversary least expects it or is prepared for it. After all, Saturday late evening is not a usual time to fix meetings to talk official business.
This will be the fifth corps commander-level meeting between Lt Gen Harender Singh, commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, and Major General Lin Liu, commander of the PLA’s South Xinjiang Military District, after June 6, June 22, June 30 and July 14 at Chushul-Moldo.
The ongoing meeting—after days of anticipation—is taking place at Moldo, in a PLA border hutment across Chushul, the post on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in east Ladakh.
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The date could not be scheduled because of disagreement on the broad agenda with the PLA insisting to resolve the ongoing Pangong Tso faceoff first while the Indian army was keen to include all faceoff points on the agenda.
“Today’s (Sunday’s) meeting will discuss the way ahead to resolve all the faceoff points and not just the one on the northern bank of the Pangong lake. Besides disengagement, de-escalation is also part of the agenda,” a military source told ETV Bharat on condition of anonymity.
Like all India-China border meetings, Sunday’s meeting is also likely to be a long one. All the past four meetings at this level had spilt over well into the night, with one meeting continuing for more than 11 hours.
At present, there are four major flashpoints in east Ladakh—Galwan Valley (PP 14), Pangong lake (Finger 4), Hot Springs (PP 15) and Gogra (PP 17). Other than Pangong Tso, disengagement is nearly complete in the other three sites.
But the Pangong Tso faceoff is a critical one as PLA’s currently-held positions at Finger 4 can make them call the shots at Gogra Valley and Hot Springs. While the PLA has disengaged from the Finger 4 area and gone back to Finger 5, it still maintains a strong post on the Finger 4 ridgeline which has a dominating view of the surroundings including over the Indian post at Finger 4.
Fingers 1 to Finger 8 are finger-like spurs that jut out in a north-south direction from the mountains southwards to the Pangong Lake. While India claims the LAC runs near Finger 8, China claims territory till Finger 3. In the past, while PLA patrolled from Finger 8 to 4, Indian Army patrolled from Finger 4 to 8.
