India, China Start New Phase Of Troop Disengagement In Ladakh - Indian Defense Ministry

India and China have started a new phase of the disengagement of forces on the border in Ladakh in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings, India's Defense Ministry said on Thursday

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2022) India and China have started a new phase of the disengagement of forces on the border in Ladakh in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings, India's Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"On September 08, 2022, according to the consensus reached in the 16th round of India China Corps Commander Level Meeting, the Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hotsprings have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquility in the border areas," according to a statement from the defense ministry.

The two Asian giants have thousands of square kilometers of disputed borderlands between them, from the Ladakh region, which is triangulated with Pakistan's Kashmir claims, all the way to Arunachal Pradesh to the east of Bhutan.

Border conflicts are a permanent fixture of India-China relations, as the countries do not have a marked border but rather the Line of Actual Control, created after the 1962 border war between the nations.

The tensions in Ladakh between China and India escalated in May 2020. Following several conflicts between the countries' military units in the area of Pangong Lake, Beijing prompting New Delhi to increase its military presence on the border.

In an attempt to reduce tensions, New Delhi and Beijing launched disengagement consultations in early June 2020, with the first phase of disengagement on the northern and southern banks of Pangong Lake completed in February 2021. Since 2020, 16 rounds of talks have taken place, yielding mixed results.