Border tension: Ties with China has not worsened, says MEA in Parliament

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that India’s ties with China have not worsened in the aftermath of the border tensions. Tensions have been spiralling between India and China ever since the soldiers of the two neighbouring countries clashed in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on June 15.

Minister of State for MEA V Muraleedharan said this in a written reply to a question raised by Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy.

Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed Parliament that there has been no Chinese infiltration in the last six months. Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai was replying to an unstarred question from Bharatiya Janata Party MP Anil Agarwal, who sought to know if cases of infiltration from Pakistan and China have increased during the last six months. “No infiltration has been reported along Indo-China border during last six months,” Rai said in a written response.

Rai’s statement came a day after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed the Lok Sabha that no mutually acceptable solution has yet been found to restore peace and tranquility on the India-China border. He added that China has mobilised a large number of troops and armaments along the LAC as well as in the “depth areas”.

India-China tension

Military heads of the two countries have engaged in several rounds of talks over the last three months after 20 Indian and unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in violent clashes in Galwan Valley. But these talks have failed to break the impasse.

On September 10, India’s Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. The two ministers agreed on a five-point plan to defuse tensions between the countries and said the current situation in the border areas of Ladakh was “not in the interest of either side”. They agreed, therefore, that the border troops of both sides should “continue their dialogue, quickly disengage, maintain proper distance and ease tensions”.

On September 7, China accused India of “outrageously firing warning shots” in a new confrontation on the southern bank of Pangong Tso lake, describing it as as “a serious military provocation”. India denied this and said Chinese troops attempted to close in on Indian forward positions along the Line of Actual Control and “fired a few rounds in the air”. This was the first confirmed use of firearms on the Line of Actual Control by troops in more than four decades.

On September 1, the Ministry of External Affairs had said that Chinese troops engaged in “provocative action” on August 31, while discussions between ground commanders were underway. This followed by earlier moves on the intervening night of August 29 and 30, which, the Indian Army said, were “provocative” military movements to change the status quo.