NEW DELHI: The situation along the Line of Actual Control is “stable but sensitive and not normal”, Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi said Tuesday, stressing the armed forces “are operationally fully prepared to deal with any contingency” till China restores the status quo in eastern Ladakh as it existed before April 2020.
“With China, you have to compete, you have to cooperate, you have to co-exist, you have to confront and contest,” Gen Dwivedi said.He also warned that India has to guard against the possibility that China was replicating its “grey zone warfare” tactics, under way in South China Sea to lay claim to territory, along the 3,488-km LAC as well by relentlessly building and populating dual-use border villages there.
Trust biggest casualty in China standoff: Army chief
In a candid fireside chat during the curtain raiser for Chanakya Defence Dialogue, the Army chief said “trust has become the biggest casualty” in the continuing military confrontation with China after People’s Liberation Army’s multiple incursions into eastern Ladakh in April-May 2020.
While “positive signalling” had come out from the flurry of political-diplomatic meetings over the last two months, execution of any plan depended on military commanders on the ground, he said, adopting a cautious approach. China has so far rebuffed India’s push for the sequential process of first disengagement at the two remaining face-off sites at Depsang and Demchok, followed by de-escalation and then de-induction of its over 50,000 troops from the frontier in eastern Ladakh. It upped the ante in the eastern sector (Sikkim, Arunachal) as well, with another 90,000 soldiers deployed there.
Gen Dwivedi said, “We want the situation that existed pre-April 2020 to be restored, whether in terms of ground occupation, buffer zones that have been created (after disengagement at other face-off sites) or patrolling that has been planned. So, till the time that situation is restored, the situation will remain sensitive and we are operationally fully prepared to face any kind of contingency that will come.”
The Army chief said “low-hanging fruits” — face-offs at Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso-Kailash Range and Gogra-Hot Springs — had been resolved through a series of diplomatic and military talks. “When it comes to the difficult ones (Depsang and Demchok), where we have different perceptions, both sides need to have a win-win situation. So, some kind of indications have been given from both the diplomatic sides,” he said. “Now, the military side will sit together and see how this can be translated on the ground. Everything we can think of is on the table along the northern front, and it includes Depsang and Demchok,” he added.
