- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India and China observed a significant development in their disturbed border affairs on Tuesday (13) ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit (September 15-16) kicking off in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, by completing disengagement at Patrolling Point (PP) 15 in the Gogra-Hot Springs of eastern Ladakh region in a phased and verified manner, News18 reported citing sources in India’s defence ministry.
Local commanders from both sides had met since the 16th round of military talks between the two neighbours on July 17, in which much of the bigger issues between them were resolved, to discuss issues that were pending — such as distances to which the respective troops would retreat on both sides of the border and other modalities, the report added.
The disengagement at PP 15 marks a significant development in the resolution of the ongoing military standoff between India and China. This would also see the troops of the two nuclear-armed powers returning to the pre-2020 positions along their Line of Actual Control.
However, India and China are yet to resolve long-standing issues at Depsang Plains and Demchok and achieve an overall de-escalation along the LAC, with both sides deploying almost 50,000 troops in the Ladakh region since the standoff started in 2020.
