Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that he expected more incidents like the Doklam standoff in the future as China was attempting to change the status quo. He also reminded troops along the border to stay alert, PTI reported.
Rawat said that during the flag meetings between the two countries, India insisted both sides should return to the “pre-June 16 positions”, but added that there has been no solution yet. This is mostly because there are “different perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control,” he said at a lecture organised in the Savitribai Phule Pune University on Saturday.
He added that though transgressions occur, which lead to misunderstandings between the troops, “there are joint mechanisms in place to address these situations”.
Rawat said the standoff is now happening at diplomatic and political levels, and will be resolved through these methods. However, he said, Indian troops must not be complacent. “Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it can not happen again in a different sector,” he was quoted as saying. “It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again.”
The Sikkim Standoff
India and China have been in a diplomatic standoff since June. Both nations have maintained that troops from the other country had transgressed into their territory in the Sikkim sector’s Doklam area. Bilateral ties have been strained since the Indian Army stopped China from constructing a road in the region. New Delhi has made it clear that it will not allow China to construct a motorable road up to the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction through the Doklam plateau.
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