TUTING BORDER ROW WITH CHINA RESOLVED, SAYS ARMY CHIEF

NEWDELHI: The Tuting border row in Arunachal Pradesh has been resolved, army chief General Bipin Rawat on Monday, days after Indian troops confronted Chinese road building teams that had crossed over several hundred metres into the Indian territory.

He also ended speculation about a possible Chinese buildup in Doklam, where the two countries’ armies were locked in a standoff last year, by stating that there were fewer Chinese troops near the region now as compared to earlier.

Rawat said the two sides held a border personnel meeting (BPM) on January 6 to settle the Tuting matter. “The Tuting incident has been resolved,” he said on the sidelines of an army function.

Indian security personnel had intercepted the Chinese teams near Bising village (under Tuting subdivision) in December-end and seized their road construction machines including two excavators and a water bowser. The equipment was returned to the Chinese side after the BPM led by brigadier-ranked officers.

“The Chinese teams, consisting of engineers and labourers, had come around 600 metres into our side of the Line of Actual Control to lay the foundation for a road,” a senior army officer said.

The Chinese trespass in Tuting took place four months after the two nuclear-armed neighbours ended the tense border standoff at Doklam.

The 73-day standoff began after the Indian Army asked China to halt road construction in Bhutanese territory. It ended on August 28 after both sides agreed to pull back their troops and China halted road construction.