India boosts troop presence near face-off site with China

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has moved another 2,500 soldiers from their peace-time deployments in Sikkim to further reinforce its proactive stance in the ongoing troop face-off with China on the Doklam plateau, even as it maintains high alert along the entire 4,057-km Line of Actual Control from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.

China has apparently also sent some troop reinforcements to Khamba Dzong and other areas near its Chumbi Valley, which juts in between Sikkim and Bhutan, in the backdrop of both armies being clearly unwilling to budge from their positions in the month-long stand-off now.

"Flag meetings between local commanders have lost their relevance. There is total stalemate. The decision to de-escalate has to come from the politico-diplomatic level. The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, set up in January 2012, or talks between the two designated Special Representatives, is the only way to diffuse the situation now," a source said.

There are just about 300-400 troops each from India and China in the eyeball-to-eyeball but "non-aggressive" confrontation at the exact stand-off site on the Doklam plateau - which is actually Bhutanese territory but coveted by Beijing to add strategic depth to its narrow Chumbi Valley - near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction.

But all Indian Army formations in the region, ranging from the 17 Division (headquarters at Gangtok) to 27 Division (Kalimpong) and 20 Division (Binnaguri), all infantry mountain warfare units with over 10,000 soldiers each, are maintaining "high operational readiness for any contingency", sources said.

Apart from the already-deployed 63 and 112 Brigades in east and north Sikkim, with 3,000 troops each, sources said two battalions under the 164 Brigade have also been "activated and moved up" to the Zuluk and Nathang Valley in the state.

Similarly, "some elements" under the 20 Mountain Division have also been moved to their exercise area. "The basic aim behind all this is to ensure availability of properly acclimatised troops, who can be mobilised at short-notice if required," the source said. On the actual face-off site, with each side headed by a colonel-rank officer, the Indian and Chinese troops are separated by a distance of just about 100-150 metres, with both having pitched tents and established logistics chains, as was earlier reported by TOI.

China is infuriated at the way Indian troops deployed in the Doka La general area proactively blocked Chinese troops and construction workers from building a motorable road towards the Zomplri Ridge on the Doklam plateau last month after Bhutanese soldiers had failed to do so. This is evident in the barrage of belligerent statements made by China, asking India to withdraw its troops from the disputed Doklam plateau between Beijing and Thimphu.

India considers the Doklam plateau, especially the Zomplri Ridge area, strategically important because it overlooks the militarily-vulnerable ‘Chicken’s Neck’ area, the narrow strip of land that connects the Indian mainland with its north-eastern states.

The assessment is that the PLA will not back off from the faceoff ahead of its 90th anniversary on August 1, which is to be followed by a crucial congress of Communist Party of China. “Indian troops are fully prepared to wait it out because they have better logistics in the region than the PLA, whose lines of communications are stretched and difficult to maintain,” the source said.

India, with Bhutanese support, maintains that the tri-junction lies at a point near Batang La based on the watershed principle, and Chumbi Valley should end there to the north of Doklam. China claims that the tri-junction lies at Gyemochen on the Zomplri Ridge, around 7.5 km south of Batang La, to buttress its claim over Doklam.


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