As India and China are going through a phase that can loosely be termed as breaking the ice after the 2020 Galwan clashes, India will have to be extremely vigilant on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). This is important for the Indian army because China has been building infrastructure along the LAC, from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh, as per a report by The Times of India, based on a senior official.

The report quoted the senior army official saying, "The way China has built roads, bridges, tunnels and habitats along the entire LAC, from eastern Ladakh to Arunachal, over the last five years, PLA troops can easily afford to pull back 100-150km and then come back again in 2-3 hours".

The official stressed that for Indian forces, such a mobilisation is not easily possible and this difference needs to be factored in while de-escalation talks go on at the table.

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It is stated that despite a thaw at the diplomatic level, which is commended by the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the trust deficit at the 3,488 KM LAC between the rival forces remains 'quite high.'

This trust deficit continues even after the situation stabilised at the remaining sites, Depsang and Demchok, last October after troop disengagement.

The report quoted another official saying, "There is no disruption in the coordinated patrolling by the rival soldiers there. But we cannot let our guard down since there has been no let-up in the PLA’s military preparedness and infrastructure build-up."

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Some of the Combined Army Brigade (CAB) of the PLA have pulled back up to 100 km from the LAC; several others remain forward deployed. During his recent visit to India, Yi met PM Modi, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, and NSA Ajit Doval.

After the meeting, the MEA issued a statement that both India and China have decided to seek an early solution to their long-standing boundary issues, and an expert group is to be set up to explore an early solution to boundary delimitation.