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India, China work on date for next round of talks as CDS Rawat explores ‘military options’

India and China are also figuring out at what level the next round of talks should take place, after previous discussions reached a deadlock on 4 August.

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New Delhi: India and China are working out the dates for the next round of military talks to resolve the tensions at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. But Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Bipin Rawat said Monday that if the parleys between the two countries don’t yield any results, there are “military options” to deal with the issue of transgressions.

Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that dates for the next round of talks are being finalised, as is the level at which the meeting would be held — lieutenant general or major general.

ThePrint had reported on 4 August that the military talks had reached a deadlock with China digging in on its new claims in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Depsang Plains and Gogra.

While both sides officially focus on talks, China is continuing with the construction of roads, bridges, helipads and military camps on its side of the LAC.

Sources in the security establishment monitoring the situation daily said the new construction is meant to provide back-up for the thousands of troops China has moved forward near the LAC, and also into the Indian side, since May this year.


Also read: China digs heels in for winter, continues building roads and bridges on own side of LAC


CDS talks military options

CDS Rawat said “the military options to deal with transgressions by the Chinese Army in Ladakh are on, but will be exercised only if talks at the military and the diplomatic level fail”.

However, he refused to discuss the kind of military options that India could exercise to push back the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

Sources in the defence establishment said that military options are always available, but the call has to be taken at the government level.

“The focus right now is on talks. The CDS has said there are military options if the talks fail,” a source said when asked what the CDS meant by talking about military options.

A second source explained that India has moved over 30,000 additional troops into Ladakh backed by additional equipment, including tanks, artillery and others.

“All the three services have been put on operational alert. There is a greater cohesion in planning and logistics,” a source said.

Since May, the Chinese have moved thousands of troops to the LAC, backed by hundreds of artillery guns, tanks and other mechanised columns, besides missile systems.

The Chinese are also suspected to have activated their S-400 Triumf air defence system.


Also read: Satellite images reveal China is building surface-to-air missile site at Mansarovar Lake


 

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6 COMMENTS

  1. Tribhuvan Darbari – Tribhuvan Darbari- India and China need to work together to resolve the issue peacefully. War has never been a solution. War brings miseries and pains. Though India cannot always stay on backfoot and keep on tolerating the aggressions and bullies by China. China has always shown aggression and bullied its neighborhood. India needs to make itself self-reliant and bolster its efforts to make India a manufacturing hub with full of opportunities. The debate over China’s rise has been raging for the past two decades, if not since 1950, when the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) swept into Tibet. India-China relations have seen it all — from engagement to a dramatic collapse in 1959, a brief-but-traumatic war in 1962, a hiatus of no- war, no-peace in the decades that followed. And, finally a diplomatic breakthrough with the 1988 modus vivendi that paved the way for India and China to build a relationship without settling the border dispute. It is clear that the next phase of the relationship depends on a peaceful frontier. But this should not mean merely a restoration of the status quo ante. If, by the status quo, we mean two large nuclear-armed countries resuming their aggressive jostling and humiliating each other, that is unsustainable. To anyone who has viewed leaked videos of the border face-offs in recent years, the Line of Actual Control (LAC) grey zones have been transformed into a nasty tit-for-tat game, waiting to explode. #TribhuvanDarbari #Tribhuvan #Darbari #DarbariTribhuvan #Tribhuvan_Darbari #Darbari_Tribhuvan #TribhuvanDarbariBlog #IndiaChinaFaceoff #IndiaChinaDispute #LatestNews

  2. Let’s be firm, any kind of talk only after PLA vacated areas occupied in Galwan valley and status quo ante maintained. President Xi’ s talks with Chinese think tank suggests long haul without actually talking of full scale war.

  3. I am more than a little intrigued by the statement “…Sources in the security establishment monitoring the situation daily said the new construction is meant to provide back-up for the thousands of troops China has moved forward near the LAC, AND ALSO INTO THE INDIAN SIDE, since May this year. [Capitalized phrase mine, for emphasis]. Does the writer of this article have any concrete evidence (e.g., authenticated satellite imagery from the LAC) to support the claim that China had moved thousands of troops into the Indian side of LAC? It is important to have a firm and justified YES or NO to this question, for this is precisely what the Congress-led Opposition has been accusing the BJP-led government of hiding from the people..even though the government – and the military – have rubbished this claim.

  4. If one is not mistaken, this is the first time a senior personage has spoken on record about exercising a military option. A grim portent. In a time of pandemic, the Chinese have acted recklessly, created a full blown crisis. Undone thirty years of painstaking diplomacy.

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