The Line of Actual Control (LAC) is a notional demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory in the Sino-Indian border dispute. The term is said to have been used by Zhou Enlai in a 1959 letter to Jawaharlal Nehru. It subsequently referred to the line formed after the 1962 Sino-Indian War and is part of the Sino-Indian border dispute.
Rajnath Singh is an Indian politician serving as the Defence Minister of India. He is currently the Deputy Leader of the House Lok Sabha. He is the former President of Bharatiya Janata Party. He has previously served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee Government. He was the Home Minister in the First Modi Ministry. He has also served as the President of the BJP twice i.e. 2005 to 2009 and 2013 to 2014. He is a veteran leader of the BJP who started his career as a RSS Swayamsevak. He is an advocate of the party's Hindutva ideology. He has also served the party in the Uttar Pradesh state from where he started his political career as a youth leader. He was also the minister of Road Transport and Highways and Agriculture under Prime ministership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The Sino-Indian border dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute over the sovereignty of two relatively large, and several smaller, separated pieces of territory between China and India. The first of the territories, Aksai Chin, is administered by China as part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region and claimed by India as part of the union territory of Ladakh; it is the most uninhabited high-altitude wasteland in the larger regions of Kashmir and Tibet and is crossed by the Xinjiang-Tibet Highway, but with some significant pasture lands at the margins. The other disputed territory is south of the McMahon Line, formerly known as the North-East Frontier Agency and now called Arunachal Pradesh. The McMahon Line was part of the 1914 Simla Convention signed between British India and Tibet, without China's agreement. China disowns the agreement, stating that Tibet was never independent when it signed the Simla Convention.
Daulat Beg Oldi is a traditional campsite and current military base located in the midst of the Karakoram Range in northern Ladakh, India. It is on the historic trade route between Ladakh and Central Asia, forming the last campsite before reaching the Karakoram Pass. It is said to be named after Sultan Said Khan, who died here on his return journey after an invasion of Ladakh and Kashmir. Chip Chap River, the main headwater of the Shyok River, flows just to the south. The Line of Actual Control with Chinese-controlled Aksai Chin is 5 miles to the east.
The Depsang Plains represent a high-altitude gravelly plain at the northwest portion of the disputed Aksai Chin region of Kashmir, divided into Indian and Chinese administered portions across a Line of Actual Control. India controls the western portion of the plains as part of Ladakh, whereas the eastern portion is controlled by China and claimed by India. The Line of Control with Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan is 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of the Depsang Plains with the Siachen Glacier in-between. Ladakh's traditional trade route to Central Asia passed through the Depsang Plains, with the Karakoram Pass lying directly to its north.
Fukche Advanced Landing Ground is an airfield in the Demchok sector of the union territory of Ladakh, India. It was built shortly after the 1962 Sino-Indian War and was revived in 2008. It is located adjacent to Koyul, 34 km northwest of Demchok.
The Sino-Pakistan Agreement is a 1963 document between the governments of Pakistan and China establishing the border between those countries.
The 2013 Depsang standoff, also called 2013 Depsang incursion, or 2013 Daulat Beg Oldi incident, was an incursion and sit-in by a platoon-sized contingent of the Chinese PLA in the valley of Raki Nala, 30 km south of Daulat Beg Oldi near the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the disputed Aksai Chin region. Indian forces responded to the Chinese presence by quickly establishing their own encampment 300 metres (980 ft) away. Negotiations between China and India lasted nearly three weeks, during which the Chinese position was supplied by trucks and supported by helicopters. The dispute was resolved on 5 May, after which both sides withdrew. As part of the resolution, the Indian military agreed to dismantle some military structures 250 km away in the Chumar sector, which the Chinese perceived as threatening. The Chinese military in July 2014 acknowledged the incursion at the Depsang Valley in Ladakh region and said that such incidents occurred due to differing perceptions of the Line of Actual Control.
The Galwan River flows from the disputed Aksai Chin region administered by China to the Ladakh region of India. It originates near the caravan campsite Samzungling on the eastern side of the Karakoram range and flows west to join the Shyok River. The point of confluence is 102 km south of Daulat Beg Oldi. Shyok River itself is a tributary of the Indus River, making Galwan a part of the Indus River system.
Chumar is a village and a border patrol facility located in south-eastern Ladakh, India. It is in Rupshu block, south of the Tso Moriri lake, on the bank of the Parang River, close to Ladakh's border with Tibet. Since 2012, China disputes the border in this area, though the Chumur village itself is undisputed.
Demchok , previously called New Demchok, and Parigas by the Chinese, is a village and military encampment in the Indian-administered Demchok sector that is disputed between India and China. It is administered as part of the Nyoma tehsil in the Leh district of Ladakh by India, and claimed by China as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Charding Nullah, traditionally known as the Lhari stream and called the Demchok River by China, is a small river that originates near the Charding La pass that is also on the border between the two countries and flows northeast to join the Indus River near a peak called "Lhari Karpo". There are villages on both sides of the mouth of the river with the same Tibetan name but romanised as Demchok and Dêmqog. The river serves as the de facto border between China and India in the Demchok sector.
The Demchok sector is a disputed region named after the villages of Demchok, Ladakh and Demchok, Tibet, situated near the confluence of the Charding Nullah and Indus River. It is part of the greater Sino-Indian border dispute between China and India. Both India and China claim the disputed region, with a Line of Actual Control between the two nations situated along the Charding Nullah.
Beginning on 5 May 2020, Chinese and Indian troops engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Demchok was described by a British boundary commission in 1847 as a village lying on the border between the Kingdom of Ladakh and the Tibet. It was a "hamlet of half a dozen huts and tents", divided into two parts by a rivulet which formed the boundary between two states. The rivulet, a tributary of the Indus River variously called the Demchok River, Charding Nullah or the Lhari stream, was set as the boundary between Ladakh and Tibet in the 1684 Treaty of Tingmosgang. By 1904–05, the Tibetan side of the hamlet was said to have had 8 to 9 huts of zamindars (landholders), while the Ladakhi side had two. The area of the former Demchok now straddles the Line of Actual Control, the effective border of the People's Republic of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and the Republic of India's Ladakh Union Territory.
In early May 2020, troops of the People's Liberation Army and Indian Army engaged in melee at locations along the notional Line of Actual Control (LAC), the disputed boundary between China and India. It escalated on 15/16 June 2020 resulting in deaths on both sides. Indian sources reported the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and casualties of at least 45 Chinese soldiers. China reported 4 deaths. On 7 September, for the first time in 45 years, shots were fired along the LAC, with both sides blaming each other for the firing. Indian media also reported that Indian troops fired warning shots at the PLA on 30 August.
The Depsang Bulge or Burtsa Bulge is a 900 square kilometre area of mountain terrain in the disputed Aksai Chin region, which was conceded to India by China in 1960 but remains under Chinese occupation since the 1962 Sino-Indian War. The area is immediately to the south of Depsang Plains and encloses the basin of the Raki Nala, a stream originating in the Aksai Chin region and flowing west to merge with the Depsang Nala near the village of Burtsa in Ladakh, eventually draining into the Shyok River. The area is perceived to be of strategic importance to both the countries, sandwiched by strategic roads linking border outposts. Since 2013, China has made attempts to push the Line of Actual Control further west into the Indian territory, threatening India's strategic road.
The Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement is an agreement signed by China and India in September 1993, agreeing to maintain the status quo on their mutual border pending an eventual boundary settlement. The Agreement on Military Confidence Building Measures, 1996, pursuant to the 1993 agreement, incrementally details the military confidence building measures to be implemented that would ensure no-war. The Protocol for the Implementation of Military Confidence Building Measures, 2005 further discussed modalities to implement the confidence building measures.
The Agreement on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question is an agreement between the India and China signed on 11 April 2005. The agreement is a direct outcome of the Special Representative (SR) mechanism that had been set up through a 2003 agreement.
The Agreement between India and China on Border Defence Cooperation (BDCA) covers border stability and security, information asymmetry, smuggling, socio-economic reconstruction, environment and disease transmission along the line of actual control. It is an incremental addition to the previous border agreements related to the Sino-Indian border dispute.
