India, China continue to stand ground
BOTH SIDES HAVE DEPLOYED ADDITIONAL TROOPS; INDIA HAS SAID IT WILL OPPOSE ANY UNILATERAL ATTEMPTS TO ALTER THE STATUS QUO ALONG THE LAC
nNEW DELHI: : India on Thursday said it is engaged with China at the diplomatic and military levels to end a border standoff involving thousands of troops even as it tacitly ruled out any possibility of US mediation to end the face-off.
The ground situation remained unchanged and neither side had lowered its guard at the four standoff points n the Ladakh sector’s Galwan Valley and Pangong Tso areas, HT has learnt.both sides are holding firms and it is not possible to indicate at this time when the status quo ante will be restored, people familiar with the developments said. Since tensions flared along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after violent clashes involving hundreds of soldiers in Sikkim and Ladakh sectors early this month, both sides have deployed additional soldiers, especially in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh. India has said it will oppose any unilateral attempts to alter the status quo along the LAC. External affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava told a virtual news briefing that both sides are engaged at different levels to address tensions, but New Delhi will make no compromises on sovereignty and national security.
Asked specifically about US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate and whether New Delhi had sought such arbitration, Srivastava said: “As I’ve told you, we are engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve this issue.”
India and China, he said, have established mechanisms at military and diplomatic levels to peacefully resolve situations that may arise in border areas through dialogue, and “continue to remain engaged through these channels”.
Srivastava reiterated India’s contention that its troops had not violated the LAC, a charge levelled by China soon after the standoff became public.
“India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring India’s sovereignty and national security,” he said. The Indian troops, he added, have a “very responsible approach towards border management and strictly follow the procedures laid out in various bilateral agreements and protocols with China to resolve any issue that may arise in the border areas”.
These include five agreements signed by India and China in the past two decades – the 1993 Agreement on Maintenance of Peace and Tranquillity along the LAC in the India-china border areas, the 1996 Agreement on Confidence Building Measures in the
Military Field along the LAC, the 2005 Protocol on Modalities for the implementation of the Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field, the 2012 Agreement on establishment of a working mechanism for consultation and coordination on India-china Border Affairs, and the 2013 Border Defence Cooperation Agreement. People familiar with developments said the envoys of both countries were playing a key role in these engagements.
China’s ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, had on Wednesday called for putting ties back on an even keel. The seemingly conciliatory approach articulated by the Chinese side has not yet been reflected in the ground situation.
The Indian army has deployed reinforcements at the four standoff points without halting work on the concrete Galwan bridge being built as part of a 255-km road to access Daulat Beg Oldie, the last military post south of the Karakoram Pass. “Nobody can question India’s right to build roads, bridges or airfields in its own territory,” an Indian official said.