Army chief briefs Rajnath on eastern Ladakh situation

NEW DELHI: Army chief Gen MM Naravane on Friday briefed defence minister Rajnath Singh on the overall situation in eastern Ladakh as well as India's military preparedness in the region where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a bitter standoff, official sources said.


The Army Chief was in Ladakh on a two-day visit from June 23 to take stock of the situation.

"The Chief of the Army Staff apprised the defence minister about the situation in eastern Ladakh," said a military source.

Singh was on a three-day visit to Russia from June 22-24.

On Thursday, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastaba said the conduct of the Chinese forces in the region is in "complete disregard" of all mutually agreed norms, and warned that "continuation of the current situation would only vitiate the atmosphere for the development of the relationship" between India and China.

The Indian and Chinese armies are locked in a bitter standoff in multiple locations in eastern Ladakh for the last six weeks, and the tension escalated manifold after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a violent clash in Galwan Valley on June 15.

Senior military commanders of the two armies on Monday held a nearly 11-hour meeting during which they arrived at a "mutual consensus" to "disengage" from all the friction points in eastern Ladakh in a gradual manner.

The two sides on Wednesday held diplomatic talks under the framework of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs.

In the diplomatic talks, both sides agreed to ensure expeditious implementation of the understanding on disengagement of troops from eastern Ladakh as decided in a meeting of senior military commanders on June 6.

Following the Galwan Vally clashes, the Army has sent thousands of additional troops to forward locations along the Line of Actual Control in various sectors including in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.

The IAF has also moved a sizeable number of its frontline Sukhoi 30 MKI, Jaguar, Mirage 2000 aircraft and Apache attack helicopters to several key air bases including Leh and Srinagar following the clashes.

The situation in eastern Ladakh deteriorated after around 250 Chinese and Indian soldiers were engaged in a violent face-off on May 5 and 6. The incident in Pangong Tso was followed by a similar incident in north Sikkim on May 9.

Prior to the clashes, both sides had been asserting that pending the final resolution of the boundary issue, it was necessary to maintain peace and tranquillity in the border areas.