NEW DELHI: President R.Vankataraman’s recent China visit is likely to reduce the armies of both countries It will also create a “positive political ambience” for the first meeting of military personnel as agreed during the meeting of the Sino-Indian joint working group.
With most of the Indian troop: already depleted along the Sino India border there exists mini mal scope of further reduction at most places on the border However Wangdong ir Kameng district if Arunacha Pradesh and Nath La in Sikhim Where the two armies face one another there is scope for military confidence building means leading to further troop reductions. These include fortal contacts between the critical commanders in addition to the already agreed biannual meetings between the brigadier rank of officers of both countries at Bum La in Kameng district and Spanggur gap in the Ladakh region. Also proposed are the telephonic links between lower commanders.
While Nathu La has traditionally been heavily guarded the problem at Wangdong was created because of the infamous Somdorong incident of 1987. Although sufficient troops by both sides have been pulled back there’s scope for a further cut in forces.
With the setting up of the military leaders biannual meetings the operational problems between the two armies have been delinked from the JWG meetings. While the JWG will tackle the larger boundary question the mutual goodwill grounds will be prepared by the military leaders by moving from “concept to specify.” “With the regional military commanders and JWG meetings being complimentary a quid pro quo deal in the long term over the border issue is possible” observed a senior officer.
In this context the forthcoming regional military commanders meeting assumes significance. It is proposed that India will ask for two more simultaneous military meetings at Nathu La and Walong in addition to Bum La and Spanggar. This will enable the Indian tactical commanders to discuss the administrative problems peculiar to their areas with their Chinese counterparts.
Both at Nathu La and Walong the Indian troops occupy high altitude positions and falling back to lower heights will lead to problems of acclimatization and the logistics The Chinese on the other hand being in Tibet are already acclimatized. The present decision of Bum La and Spanggur as meeting points is based on the fact that Gina has only two military regions along the border.
A comprehensive review of the outcome of these regional military commanders meet will come up during the scheduled visit of Gen Xi Xin Chinese deputy chief of the army staff to Delhi later this year.
Since the visit of the late Rajiv Gandhi to China in 1988 as part of the confidence-building measures large de-induction of the Army from the Sino-Indian border has already been done. Nearly two _ divisions (25000 troops) have been pulled back from the highly militarized Kameng district since the military buildup during operation Falcon in 1986 Heavy troop concentrations in the Chumbi valley in Sikkim have been diffused.
The troops are still operationally tasked there they have been employed for insurgency duties in Assam. The border along north and east Sikkim and north Bengal has thin troops deployments Further eastward till the old Tibet autonomous-political region only the Indo-Tibet border police and various scouts forces are deployed. The Ladakh region has a reinforced division which caters both for the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Pakistan and China.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1992
