On Friday, Indian Air Force chief Amar Preet Singh said China is building infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Ahead of the Air Force Day at a press conference, the Chief of Air Staff also said that India was also upgrading infrastructure in the area quickly.
The comments come weeks following India and China were learnt to have made progress in narrowing their gap on pending issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. It includes exploring the possible solution that factors in their respective pre-April 2020 positions while agreeing to address existing issues in Arunachal Pradesh, according to the media reports. An official had said, ‘Presently, troops deployed along the LAC continue to be in a state of alert’. He further added that they are avoiding any confrontation which can create a trust deficit and delay redeployment plans.
The Army is considering raising the 72 Division which was to originally function under the 17 Mountain Strike Corps (MSC) based in Panagarh (West Bengal) for possible deployment in eastern Ladakh under the Northern Command. On September 12, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that about 75 % of the disengagement problems with China have been sorted out but the bigger issue has been the increasing militarisation of the border. The Chinese Foreign ministry said that the troops have disengaged at four places in Eastern Ladakh, including Galwan Valley and the situation along the borders is stable.
In September 2022, the last formal disengagement along the LAC took place when both the sides pulled back troops to disengage from Patrolling Point-15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs area of Eastern Ladakh. Friction points such as Galwan Valley, north and south banks of Pangong Tso and the Gogra-Hot Springs area have seen some amount of resolution in the last four years with the creation of buffer zones along the LAC.
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