India slams China bid to ‘change status quo’

PUNE: China is attempting to “change the status quo” on its border with India and incidents like the ongoing stand-off in the Doklam area are likely to “increase” in future, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said.

“The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future,” Rawat said on Saturday.

He was delivering the General BC Joshi Memorial Lecture on ‘India’s Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct’ organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University here this evening.

“Pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist. These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops... however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations,” said Rawat.

He said during the flag meetings with Chinese counterparts, the Indian Army keeps insisting on both sides returning to the pre-June 16 positions, but no resolution has been found yet.

“Now it’s happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives,” he said.

Chinese armed forces have made significant progress in capabilities for mobilisation, application and sustenance of operations, particularly in the Tibet autonomous region of China, he noted.