Before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, India and China pulled their troops out of the PP15.
According to S. Jaishankar, the foreign affairs minister, “one problem fewer on the border” resulted from the Indian and Chinese forces leaving Patrolling Point 15 in eastern Ladakh. His comments came as rumours about Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with Uzbekistan’s communist President Xi Jinping kept going around.
S. Jaishankar at a press conference
At a press conference in the nation’s capital with Catherine Colonna of France, Jaishankar said, “I don’t think I have anything new to say today, except that we’ve stopped fighting at PP-15.”
He was answering a question about how China treats India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
“From what I gather, the disengagement was finished. That means there is one less issue at the border”, he added.
Jaishankar said that he was aware of the latest developments in the talks between the PLA of China and the Indian Army, but he also stressed that the standoff at the LAC, the de facto border between the two countries, which has been going on for more than two years, was still going on.
By stationing soldiers at Depsang Bulge, which is completely within Indian territory and along the country’s LAC with China, the PLA has continued to obstruct the Indian Army’s access to Patrol Points 10, 11, 12, 12A, and 13. The same conflict persisted in Demchok on the LAC.
But between September 8 and September 12, the two sides finished removing their forces from the Gogra-Hotsprings region (PP15). Before the talks to end the standoff, which started in April or May 2020, soldiers were pulled out of three more standoff areas along the LAC: the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the northern bank of the Pangong Tso in February 2021, and the Gogra Post (PP-17A) in August 2021.
The upcoming SCO summit
Before the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, India and China pulled their military forces out of the PP15.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Modi will travel to the historic Silk Road metropolis in the nation of central Asia to attend the summit. Already in the city is Chinese President Xi.
There are several rumours floating around regarding the likelihood of the two leaders meeting separately outside of the summit. But neither Beijing nor New Delhi said that a meeting between the two countries was likely or not likely.
According to sources in New Delhi, Modi will meet separately with the presidents of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, and the host of the summit, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
Also read: India China 15th round of talks to resolve Ladakh issue
