The ongoing India-China dispute in eastern Ladak, has grabbed the focus of nations across the globe. China on Monday said that the overall situation at the border with India was “stable and controllable”, and both the countries have “unimpeded” communication channels to resolve the issues through dialogue and consultations.
On the Indian-China dispute front, Nirupama Menon Rao, the retired 1973 batch Indian Foreign Service officer, who served as India’s Foreign Secretary from 2009 to 2011, has explained India-China border dispute in a series of tweets on Monday. She tweeted, “The #IndiaChina border is 3488 km long, not the LAC. The India-China border as India defines it extends eastward from the India-Afghanistan-China trijunction far west of the Karakoram pass to the India-Myanmar-China trijunction in the Eastern Sector.1/n”.
As per the reports in early May, Chinese forces put up tents, dug trenches, and moved heavy equipment several kilometres inside what had been regarded by India as its territory. The move came after India built a road several hundred kilometres long connecting to a high-altitude forward airbase which is reactivated in 2008.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations that may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and “continue to remain engaged through these channels.”
Troops of India and China were engaged in a major standoff for over three weeks in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie in eastern Ladakh, in what is turning out to be the biggest confrontation between the two countries after the Doklam episode in 2017.
The situation deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on the evening of May 5 in Pangong Tso which spilt over to the next day before the two sides agreed to “disengage”.
The latest tensions blew up on May 9 when nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector. At least 10 soldiers from both sides sustained injuries.