Indian military vehicles march along a mountain road along the India-China border, July 4, 2020.
The standoff between Indian and Chinese communist forces at the Ladakh border has been negotiated through 10 rounds of military commanders’ meetings, with both sides withdrawing some of their military forces, but Indian officials revealed that the air forces of both sides have still not withdrawn from the Ladakh area, with the Chinese side deploying a large number of radars and missiles and the Indian side deploying multiple types of warplanes in response.
According to an unnamed Indian official, there is no change in the deployment of the Indian Air Force in the Ladakh region and no change in the deployment of the Chinese Communist Air Force there, the Central News Agency reported on Wednesday (March 31), citing the Hindustan Times.
Those familiar with the situation noted that the deployment of the Indian and Chinese Communist air forces in the Ladakh theater is just like it was during the peak of border tensions last year.
Anil Chopra, a retired Indian Air Force lieutenant general and current director of the Centre for Air Power Studies, said IAF air defense equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles, transport aircraft and helicopter units will remain stationed and on standby at air bases within 350 kilometers of eastern Ladakh; the same goes for the Chinese (Communist Party of China) as well. This situation will change only when the two sides reach some kind of political solution.
Another Indian official alleges that the Chinese Communist army has deployed a large number of radars and missiles in the area, in addition to continuing to deploy fighter jets in the area from Ladakh to Tibet.
In response to the CCP’s military deployment, the Indian Air Force’s MiG-29 and Su-30 fighter jets, as well as Apache AH-64E attack helicopters and CH-47F Chinook heavy transport helicopters, are deployed in Ladakh, and India has even deployed its latest Rafale fighter jets to strengthen the Indian combat forces there.
After the 10th round of military commanders’ meetings between India and the Chinese Communist Party, the two sides reached a consensus to withdraw troops from the northern and southern shores of Pangong Lake, but each side will propose its own withdrawal plan for other areas to be brought back for discussion.
Indian media have previously reported that the Chinese Communist Party is still deploying combat-ready forces deep along the border and upgrading military infrastructure in the area.
At least 20 Indian soldiers were killed when the worst clashes between Chinese and Indian forces in 45 years erupted in the Galwan Valley in the western section of the border on the evening of June 15 last year. After the incident, the Communist Party of China (CPC) never announced the number of dead and wounded on the Chinese side. Only in February this year did the Communist Party’s military newspaper report that in June last year, the regimental commander Qi Fabao was seriously wounded; battalion commander Chen Hongjun and soldiers Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuo Ran died in the clashes between the two sides.
But Russia’s state-run TASS news agency revealed in February that 45 Chinese Communist Party officers and soldiers had died in the clash.
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