at LAC: From old protocols of disengagement to engagement India-China new rules of

The Protocols of Disengagement, aimed at avoiding an escalation of conflict, have weakened over time and stood jettisoned in 2020.

- LT GEN RAKESH SHARMA (RETD)

Since Chinese expansionism in Eastern Ladakh in May 2020, issues of bilateral agreements signed in 1993, 1996, 2005, 2012 and 2013 between India and China and the agreed protocols have been debated adinfinitum. The 1993 Agreement on Maintaining Peace and Stability stipulated that the two sides would not use force or threaten to use force and respect and obey the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The 1996 Agreement was like a no-war pact stating that neither side shall use its military capability against the other side. There were minimum levels of military forces to be maintained along the LAC, compatible with the friendly and good neighbourly relations.

The 2005 Protocol said that if the border personnel of the two sides came to a face-to-face situation due to differences on the alignment of the LAC or any other reason, they should exercise self-restraint and take all necessary steps to avoid an escalation of the situation and simultaneously return to their respective bases.

In the last decade, however, the face-offs had witnessed the PLA jostling, pushing, and incidences of scuffles and fisticuffs. Since 2013, many incidents occurred wherein there were gross violations of protocols in Raki Nalla, Chumar, Pangong Tso, Demchok and Doklam, and the face-offs were prolonged. In Pangong Tso and in Galwan in 2020, the PLA displayed total savagery and cruelty in the brawls and fisticuffs, using medieval weapons like nail-studded clubs, rods wrapped in barbed wire and knuckle dusters against Indian troops.