By Vineet Dikshit

NewsGate Press Network

If all goes well as planned on Thursday/Friday that is on 31st of October and 1st of November, Indian troops and orchestrated PLA detachment will exchange first ever Diwali greetings with sweets at regular BPM points along in the LAC in Ladakh.

Its coming after a disengagement agreement that has been reached between India and China at Depsang Plains and at Demchok in eastern Ladakh.

The achievement has taken place after a deft handling by Indian diplomats and army commanders on the ground.

The four year long stand-off situation is now coming to an amicable settlement after Chinese PLA troops transgressed into the traditional Indian territory in 2020 and their subsequent forceable entrenchment.

The agreed retreat means combat troops from India and China will move back to their forward garrison locations while the vast wilderness in Aksai Chin specially in Depsang Plains and at the Demchok will now again be ‘open’ for patrolling albeit under a changed format.

Comments and statements emanating from top leadership specially from Ministry of External Affairs and Defence Ministry clearly states status that quo ante 2020 has been achieved.

On the ground  – the BPM stands for ‘Border Personnel Meeting’ point.

There are five of them along the Chinese LAC – two each in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh while one BPM location is in Sikkim.

Hot-line communication lines are already working across the LAC between army commanders at most of these BPM locations.

The BPM location in Eastern Ladakh is not far from the famous Razang La memorial site.

On Wednesday the 30th of October 2024, Chinese Ambassador to India Xu Feihong told reporters in Kolkata hours later that the two countries had reached “many important understandings”.

“There was a very important meeting between President Xi Jinping and PM Narendra Modi (on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia last week). Now that the two leaders have reached important understandings, they will be the guidelines for the further development of relations between our two countries. I

hope that, under the guidance of this consensus, our relations will be moving forward smoothly in the future and they will not be restricted or interrupted by specific disagreements between our two sides,” the ambassador said.