‘Have to compete, co-exist, confront, contest with China’, says Army Chief on relations with China
- In Reports
- 11:10 AM, Oct 02, 2024
- Myind Staff
Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi stressed the complicated relationship between India and China. He stated that India needs to compete, cooperate, coexist, confront, and contest with China.
Highlighting the matter, the Army Chief remarked, “As far as China is concerned, it has been intriguing our minds for quite some time. With China, you have to compete, cooperate, coexist, confront, and contest. It's stable, but it's not normal and it's sensitive. We want the situation to be restored back to what it was before April 2020, whether in terms of the ground occupation situation or the buffer zones that have been created.”
He also restated the readiness of the armed forces, saying, "Until that situation is restored, the situation will remain sensitive, and we are fully operationally prepared to face any kind of contingency. Trust has become the biggest casualty." Regarding the status of the ongoing negotiations, Dwivedi revealed that since April, there have been roughly 17 Corp Commander-level talks between the two sides at the level of Corps Commanders.
"We have come a long way. Now, when we have a difficult situation, both sides need to find a win-win solution," he responded. However, the updates on India-China relations were given earlier in September by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which described them as continuing discussions and attempts to ease tensions through meetings of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC).
The External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, has regularly addressed the relationship in a number of forums, stressing transparency and giving regular updates on the status of WMCC discussions, according to MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal.
In response to a query concerning External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar's claim that 75% of the issues surrounding China and India's disengagement have been settled, Jaiswal said, "External Affairs Minister has spoken on India-China relations on several occasions. Recently, he spoke of it in Berlin. He also spoke about it in New Delhi when he attended an event here. We have also been keeping you informed about the developments in our talks with the WMCC."
Remarkably, Jaishankar stated that "75% of disengagement problems are sorted out" when discussing the relationship between China and India during his visit to Geneva.
At the 31st Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC), which took place in Beijing on August 29, India and China agreed to work together to maintain ground-level peace and quiet in border regions in compliance with pertinent bilateral agreements and protocols. Both sides have been stationed in forward positions close to Patrolling Point 15, which became a point of contention following the Galwan clash, since May 2020, when the Chinese troops attempted to forcefully alter the status quo on LAC in eastern Ladakh.
Since 2020, over 50,000 Indian soldiers have been stationed at forward posts along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), armed with cutting-edge weaponry to thwart any attempts by one party to alter the LAC's status quo unilaterally.
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