Army position on Siachen puts pressure on Centre

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the Indo-Pakistan foreign secretary level talks starting on Tuesday, the Army has again gone public with its strong reservation on the demilitarisation of Siachen, considerably reducing the government’s elbow room for any bold moves during the talks.

Pakistan foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan will arrive here on Monday for talks, which start on Tuesday, with his counterpart Shivshankar Menon to review progress of discussions on various outstanding issues including Siachen.

But ahead of the talks, the Army has clearly stated that vacating the glacier would weaken India’s position and has pushed for negotiating foolproof guarantees that will protect vantage points from possible takeovers from Pakistan or China.

Brigadier Om Prakash, the commander of the unit responsible for guarding Siachen was quoted by reports from Siachen base camp as saying that if the Army withdraws from Siachen it will weaken India’s position in the region and that the glacier is vital for the defence of the Ladakh region.

This is the latest in a line of public statements from the Army cautioning against the demilitarisation of Siachen. At this stage, the government cannot be seen to go over the Army to come to an agreement with Pakistan on Siachen.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee during his tenure as defence minister had backed the Army’s position on the issue and now as external affairs minister, Mr Mukherjee is bound to be mindful of the reservations raised by the Army.

Official sources have indicated that an agreement can be reached immediately if Pakistan accepts India’s terms on proper authentication of present troop positions. Pakistan till now has not accepted the actual ground position line that India wants Pakistan to authenticate.

But in the light of the Army’s position, the government will have to ensure that the Army’s reservations are fully addressed before finalising any agreement with Pakistan.

The government was taken by surprise when Pakistan foreign minister Khurshid M Kasuri had stated that India and Pakistan were close to an agreement on Siachen when there had been no sign from Pakistan on this. Sources say that they would like Mr Kasuri to directly convey this message to officials here instead of speaking publicly.