NEW DELHI: India will not reduce the number of its troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control with China anytime soon, General Upendra Dwivedi said on Monday, asserting there is still “a degree of standoff” persisting between the rival armies and the two countries need to rebuild trust to de-escalate overall tensions.
The Army chief also slammed Pakistan for continuing to be the “epicenter of terrorism orchestrating” cross-border violence in J&K, noting that 60% of terrorists killed in the state last year were of Pakistani-origin and 80% of the active terrorists are also from the same country.
Speaking ahead of the Army Day on Wednesday, Gen Dwivedi described the current situation along the 3,488-km LAC with China as “stable but sensitive”, with thousands of rival troops and heavy weapon systems still ranged against each other for almost five years now.
India has “adequate strategic patience” to resolve the military confrontation with China, he said, adding that the troop deployments along the LAC were “balanced and robust”, and “well-poised” to tackle any contingency.
The Army chief also made it clear the existing ground situation is not ripe for any kind of troop cut during the ongoing winter, and the decision on the summer deployment will be based on the outcome of further negotiations with China.
Asked whether India had agreed to give patrolling rights to Chinese troops in sensitive areas like Yangtse in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, which had seen a clash between the rival troops in Dec 2022, Gen Dwivedi said all corps commanders have been delegated powers to resolve “minor frictions” related to patrolling and grazing issues so that they do not become “big issues” later.
After troop disengagement at the two remaining face-off sites at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh last Oct, which has led to restoration of patrolling by the rival soldiers and grazing by herders, India wants China to move ahead towards de-escalation and then de-induction of its over 50,000 forward deployed troops there.
Since April 2020, when the People’s Liberation Army made multiple incursions into eastern Ladakh, Gen Dwivedi said both sides have “doctored” the terrain, carried out constructions, made troop deployments and resorted to military stockings. Consequently, there is still “a degree of standoff” in place, he said.
“The trust between the countries has to have a new definition. Therefore, there is a requirement for us to sit together and come to a broader understanding as to how we want to calm down the situation and restore the trust,” the Army chief said. The Army will await “guidance” on how to move forward from the next round of diplomatic and special representatives-level talks, he added.
Indian troops, of course, cannot patrol in the “buffer zones” established earlier at Galwan, north bank of Pangong Tso, the Kailash Range and the larger Gogra-Hot Springs area in eastern Ladakh, varying from 3-km to 10-km, which largely came up on what India considers to be its own territory.
Gen Dwivedi, however, said, “There is nothing called a buffer zone…Where you feel that the nature or the degree of violence can be high and the fuse is short, you create some distances. So, when we carried out these negotiations over a period, at some places we declared a temporary moratorium.”
“It means that both sides will remain back and will not go to the common areas because we still feel that if we meet at those places, the violence level may go high,” he added.