India On Friction Point With China As Troops Not Reduced At LAC: Army Chief

China-India at friction point in LAC as Chinese troops are not reduced says Army Chief.

The Chief of the Army, General Manoj Mukund Narvane on Tuesday said that amidst border tensions with China there has been no reduction in the troops on either side of the border. The friction points are concerning and asserted that the issues will be discussed on the basis of mutual and equal security.

In advance of Army Day, General Naravane held après conference where he said “Every year PLA troops come to traditional training areas. With winter and completion of the training period, training areas have been vacated. Fair to assume those troops who were in depth areas in Tibetan plateau have gone back and that’s the reduction of strength on the plateau. There has been no decrease in the strength either on their side (China) or our sides as far as friction points are concerned.”

This statement by the Army Chief comes a day after reports claims that around 10,000 Chinese troops have been pulled back from their position in the Eastern Ladakh region in India. The Chinese PLA army since March-April last year has deployed 50,000 troops on the Indian border and due to extreme temperatures the troops have been withdrawn from areas around 200 Kms from the Indian side. To counter any sort of misadventure in Ladakh the Indian troop strength has also been increased. The armies of the two nations have been on a stand-off since last year along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). After the Galwan valley clash which claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian army personnel the tensions escalated and resulted in deployment of troops on both sides of the border at various points of friction.

The External Affairs minister, S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that the relationship between the nations of India and China has been ‘profoundly disturbed’ by the first bloodshed incident in 45 years along the LAC which had a ‘huge impact’ on the public opinion.