File photo of Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Suhag
Army Chief General Dalbir Suhag has postponed a four-day official trip to Bhutan which was to begin from today, in the wake of the stand-off with the Chinese troops at the border. The Army has deployed about 2000 soldiers at Chumur in South Eastern Ladakh where they are locked in a face-off with around 1000 soldiers from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA). Troops from either side are strung across in an east-to-west axis in a two-kilometre wide arch.
Senior officials told NDTV that apart from the deployment, the Army also destroyed a road being constructed by the Chinese PLA in Chumur.
The construction activity, which India has objected to for long, was detected on September 13. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Army, which rushed reinforcements to Chumur, "dug-up" the under-construction road and seized road building equipment of the Chinese PLA a day before President Xi Jinping reached India.
India claims that China is constructing a road from Chepzi into Chumur, violating the border 2005 protocol that prevents either side from constructing in the disputed areas.
Even as current round of face-off at Demchok and Chumur entered the 12th day, the end of the stand-off now appears to be beyond the resolution through flag meetings between Indian and Chinese military commanders as laid down in the border management protocol by the two countries in 2013. "A resolution to face-off now lies at a political level," a senior army official told NDTV. The two sides will have to agree to a formula that seems workable for both.
In the April-May 2013 stand-off at Depsang plains which continued for about three weeks, China withdrew only after India agreed to remove tin sheds and stopped constructing bunkers at Chumur. Depsang and Chumar are about 650 kilometres apart.
According to reports reaching New Delhi, the Chinese are facing difficulties keeping its troops supplied and are using helicopters to air drop supplies. India is at an advantage in Chumur, unlike other disputed areas at the Line of Actual Control (LAC). India troops are being supplied through a paved 90-kilometre-long road connecting from Karzok (on the Leh-Manali Highway) to Chumur.
In a related development, Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission, attended a meeting of Chiefs of Staff of the PLA in Beijing. In a statement released after the meeting, the Chinese Defence Ministry said President Xi had directed that: "Headquarters of all PLA forces should improve their combat readiness and sharpen their ability to win a regional war in the age of information technology".