Disengagement at the border

More clarity needs to emerge on specifics of infrastructure creation activities, patrolling, buffer zones and status quo ante in Eastern Ladakh

In May and June 2020, thousands of China’s border guards and soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) emerged from the winter freeze in Tibet and Xinjiang and crossed the Line of Actual Control (LAC) into Eastern Ladakh, capturing Indian territory along five separate axes. From north to south, these axes were the Depsang plain, Galwan River valley, Gogra – Hot Springs, Pangong Tso and Demchok. Indian Army units and formations in Ladakh were taken by surprise, each having suspended its own patrolling due to the risk of spreading the coronavirus contagion, Covid-19, which had emerged in China the previous