China has withdrawn troops, dismantled infrastructure and vacated camps along its disputed border with India, according to new satellite images – just a week after both countries agreed to a mutual disengagement, CNN reported.
Satellite images taken on January 30 by US-based Maxar Technologies showed a number of Chinese deployments along Pangong Tso, a strategically important lake that runs across the two nuclear powers’ de facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
In new images taken on Tuesday, dozens of vehicles and building structures had been removed, leaving empty land. China announced on February 10 that both countries had agreed to disengage along the south and north shores of the lake.
“The Chinese have shown their sincerity of intent of purpose in carrying out the disengagement process,” Indian Lt. Gen. YK Joshi told CNN affiliate CNN-News18 on Thursday. “They have been doing it at a very rapid pace.”
Images and footage released by the Indian Army on February 10 showed excavator trucks and loaded convoys, Chinese soldiers dismantling tents and carrying bags out of camp, and People’s Liberation Army (PLA) tanks on the move.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Beijing hoped India would “work with China to meet each other halfway.”
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on February 11 that both sides would “remove the forward deployment in a phased, coordinated and verified manner.”