Foreign secretary Vikram Misri, who announced the agreement on Monday, only said the understanding would lead to disengagement of troops and eventually, a resolution of the issues that had arisen on the LAC in 2020.

India-China ties had plunged to their lowest point since the 1962 border war with the start of the face-off in April-May 2020. Following a brutal clash at Galwan Valley that killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops, both sides arrayed some 60,000 troops each in Ladakh sector of the disputed border.

Beyond the agreement on patrolling arrangements, which is understood to cover the two remaining “friction points” of Depsang and Demchok, the two sides will now have to decide on what Misri had described as the “next steps”, including de-escalation and de-induction of frontline forces to erstwhile peacetime positions.

With winter about to set in over the next few weeks, the withdrawal of so many troops by both sides is expected to be a protracted process. Moreover, the two sides will have to agree on the modalities for de-escalation, which is seen as more complex than disengagement, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

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Even when external affairs minister S Jaishankar said at an event in Geneva in September that India and China had resolved “about 75% of the disengagement problems”, he had pointed to the larger issue of the “militarisation of the border”. Given that the situation at both Depsang and Demchok is more complex, de-escalation will have to be a well thought-out process, the people cited above said.

Depsang Plains, located near Daulat Beg Oldie in the northwestern part of Aksai Chin region, is where Chinese troops have blocked patrols by Indian forces in the so-called “bottleneck” area, thus cutting off access to the five Patrolling Points (PPs) 10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13. Daulat Beg Oldie is home to India’s northern-most air force base.

At Demchok, situated near the southern-most part of the LAC in Ladakh, Chinese troops have cut off access to the strategic Charding–Nilung Nullah junction.

Reports have suggested that the two sides have now agreed on patrolling in all areas, with a frequency of two patrols a month and the number of troops being limited to 15 to reduce the possibility of confrontations.

There is also lack of clarity on the “buffer zones” created by the two sides since the start of the standoff on the banks of the Pangong Lake and at Galwan Valley, Gogra and Hot Springs. These zones, meant to be temporary, too restricted access to patrolling points that were traditionally accessed by Indian troops.

A former Indian diplomat who played a key role in negotiating several border management agreements with Beijing said the Indian side will have to ensure there is no repeat of the resolution of the 2017 border standoff at Doklam, located at the junction of the borders of India, Bhutan and China. Indian troops had intervened after Chinese troops began building a road in the strategic Doklam plateau, which is claimed by Bhutan, triggering a 73-day face-off.

“We declared victory in the Doklam standoff, and now Chinese troops are back in the area and strengthening their positions,” the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

A Western envoy who has closely tracked the India-China military standoff said the devil is in the details. China, the envoy who didn’t want to be named said, had used the past four years to rapidly ramp up border infrastructure, including a bridge connecting both banks of Pangong Lake, and dual-use facilities such as helipads and airports to ensure a first mover advantage for re-induction of troops.

Both the Western envoy and the former Indian diplomat called for caution in further negotiations aimed at the eventual resolution of the military standoff, given China’s history of dealing with border issues with India.

“Any agreement with China on de-induction of troops cannot be based simply on the distance that each side will have to move its troops towards the rear. China enjoys a major advantage because of its infrastructure and road network and the agreement will have to factor in the actual time taken by each side to re-induct troops,” the former Indian diplomat said.

Given China’s complete silence on the new development, diplomatic circles are hoping that an expected meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will throw up more details on the way forward to de-escalation and ending the military standoff on the LAC.