It may be noted that a sizeable number of Chinese deployment on the banks of Pangong Tso had included armoured vehicles, apart from tanks

New Delhi: While disengagement along the Line of Actual Control with China may have started amid the ongoing border dispute, the Indian Army has started to prepare for similar challenges in the future by building up its capacities for mountain warfare.

It has been learned that the Army has placed an order for 27 armoured vehicles with an Indian company under emergency procurement procedures. These armoured vehicles will be used for deployment in high altitude areas.

While the input doesn’t say which these high-altitude areas are, in the context of the ongoing India-China border dispute, most of the friction points in eastern Ladakh are located in such terrain.

For instance, disengagement has been completed on the northern as well as southern banks of Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh and both of these banks are high-altitude areas. In fact, a sizeable number of Chinese deployment on the banks of Pangong Tso included armoured vehicles, apart from tanks.

There are signals that the more than 10-month long LAC standoff in eastern Ladakh may finally come to an end with China agreeing to disengage and move back troops from Pangong Tso. The 10th round of talks for disengagement at other friction points like Goagra-Hot Springs and Depsang has also taken place already.

A joint statement issued at the end of the lengthy talks stated that the two sides positively appraised each other of the smooth completion of disengagement of frontline troops in the Pangong Tso lake area. The statement noted that the Pangong Tso disengagement would form the basis for the resolution of other remaining issues along the LAC in the western sector.

India and China share a hotly-contested 3,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between the two Asian giants.