China’s military on Friday, September 9, 2022, confirmed it had begun the process of disengagement from Patrolling Point 15 in Gogra-Hot Springs, in another step towards resolving the stand-off between India and China in Eastern Ladakh.
China’s Ministry of Defence, in a statement identical to what India released on Thursday, noted that “according to the consensus reached in the 16th Round of China-India Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Chinese and Indian troops in the area of Jianan Daban [as China refers to the PP15 area] have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the border areas.”
India and China had previously disengaged at PP14 in Galwan Valley in 2020, in Pangong Lake in February 2021, and in PP17A in Gogra in August last year. Issues at Demchok and Depsang remain unresolved.
The last round of Corps Commander talks in July had discussed PP15, but working out the modalities for disengagement had taken longer than India had expected with the view that the Chinese military had put forward unreasonable suggestions.
China’s willingness to disengage came ahead of next week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Uzbekistan, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping are expected to attend.
Both leaders, who haven’t met or spoken since a November 2019 meeting in Brasilia a month after Mr. Xi’s visit to Mamallapuram for an “informal summit”, will also attend a G20 Summit in Indonesia in November.
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