Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNationIndia will ‘not tolerate’ unilateral attempts to alter LAC: EAM Jaishankar

India will ‘not tolerate’ unilateral attempts to alter LAC: EAM Jaishankar


India will “not tolerate” unilateral attempts by China to alter the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and bilateral relations won’t be normal as long as the Chinese side builds up forces along the border, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday.

Military commanders of the two countries continue to engage with each other to find solutions to the friction points on the LAC, Jaishankar said while responding to questions on the situation in the border areas from several lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha.

The MPs, on the first day of the winter session of Parliament on Wednesday, raised the killing of 20 Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley in June 2020 in the worst clashes along the LAC in more than four decades. India and China have been locked in a dragging military standoff in Ladakh sector since May 2020 and more than two dozen rounds of diplomatic and military talks have failed to end the face-off at friction points such as Depsang and Demchok.

“Diplomatically, we have been very clear with the Chinese – that we will not tolerate, we will not countenance unilateral attempts to change the LAC and that, so long as they continue to seek to do that and if they have built up forces, which in our minds constitute a serious concern in the border areas, then our relationship is not normal,” Jaishankar said.

“The abnormality of [bilateral relations] has been in evidence in the last few years,” he said.

Jaishankar was responding to questions after making a statement in the Rajya Sabha on India’s key foreign policy engagements since the last parliamentary session in August.

Also Read:Pentagon: China warned US not to interfere in India ties

“Meanwhile, the military commanders continue to engage each other and I think given the sensitivity of that matter, it is something which is left to the military commanders to deal with. I think the House should be understanding of the national sensitivity of such a delicate matter,” he said, without giving details.

Following the 16th round of talks between the military commanders in July, the two sides withdrew frontline forces from Hot Springs in September. Prior to this, disengagement of Indian and Chinese troops from friction points on the LAC had been stuck for more than a year, with the last breakthrough coming in August 2021, when the two sides pulled back soldiers from Gogra.

Despite four rounds of disengagement from Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake, Gogra and Hot Springs, India and China still have some 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.



Source link

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

- Advertisment -

Most Popular

Recent Comments