LAC Latest: Bipin Rawat targets China, says border confrontations could lead to wider conflict
Indo-China border situation tense, possibility of larger conflict can’t be discounted: Bipin Rawat
The chief of defence staff criticised Pakistan and alleged the country’s ‘unabated proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir’ had taken the bilateral ties to a new low.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Friday said the situation astride the India-China border in Ladakh continued to remain tense, five months after their deadliest military confrontation in decades, PTI reported. Rawat admitted that the possibility of confrontations and unprovoked military actions spiralling into a larger conflict “cannot be discounted”.
Nonetheless, India’s posturing is “unambiguous”, the military official said. “We will not accept any shift in Line of Actual Control. China’s People’s Liberation Army is facing unanticipated consequences for its misadventure in Ladakh because of firm responses by Indian forces.”
Rawat made the statements at the Diamond Jubilee Webinar 2020, organised by National Defence College, according to ANI.
On August 24, Rawat had made similar assertions and said that the military option is on the table if talks between New Delhi and Beijing to de-escalate the tension along the border fail. “Defence services always remain prepared for military actions should all efforts to restore status quo along the LAC do not succeed,” he had said.
The standoff along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh is in a stalemate since May, when Chinese troops moved to take control of the territory that had been patrolled by Indian soldiers for decades. The initial scuffles led up to a pitched battle – without firearms – in June that saw 20 Indian soldiers killed, with Beijing refusing to release casualty numbers on its side.
Both India and China have accused each other of crossing into rival territory and of firing shots for the first time in 45 years.
The sides have held several rounds of talks by military, diplomatic and political officials, including negotiations between their foreign ministers and defense ministers in Moscow last month. But the standoff has persisted, although no new military aggression has been reported for over a month now.
On Pakistan
In his address, Rawat also criticised Pakistan and alleged that the “unabated proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir” unleashed by the neighbouring country, accompanied by its “vicious anti-India rhetoric” have taken the bilateral ties to a new low.
The chief of defence staff asserted New Delhi’s military prowess over Islamabad and said the surgical strikes and the Balakot airstrikes conducted by the Indian Air Force have sent “a strong message” that Pakistan no longer enjoys impunity of “pushing terrorists into India under a nuclear bogey”.
“The new Indian template to deal with terror has injected uncertainty in Pakistan,” Rawat added.
'Won't accept any shift in Line of Actual Control': CDS Bipin Rawat talks tough on Ladakh standoff
Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said that India will not accept any shift in Line of Actual Control and that China is facing unanticipated consequences for its misadventure in Ladakh.
Gen Rawat statement is the strongest direct attack on China by any high ranking Indian government official
The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat said on Friday that Chinese Army is facing “unanticipated consequences of its misadventure in Ladakh" and possibility of border confrontations leading to a wider conflict can’t be ruled out.
“The situation along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh remains tense and the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is facing unanticipated consequences of its misadventure in Ladakh because of the Indian defence forces firm and strong response,” said Gen Rawat at the diamond jubilee webinar of the National Defence College.
He said that India will not accept any shifting of the line of actual control (LAC). “In the overall security calculus, border confrontation, transgressions and unprovoked tactical military actions spiralling into a larger conflict cannot be discounted,” said the CDS.
Gen Rawat statement is the strongest direct attack on China by any high ranking Indian government official. Indian government ministers and official have mostly avoided naming China directly while talking about Chinese aggression on the LAC.
Gen Rawat said that China and Pakistan acting in collusion poses a threat. “Constant friction with two of our nuclear armed neighbours, with whom India has fought wars, increasingly acting in collusion, poses an omnipresent danger of regional strategic instability with the potential for escalation threatening our territorial integrity and strategic cohesion,” he said.
Gen Rawat said that unabated proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir being leashed from Pakistan, a vicious anti-India rhetoric on social media and efforts to create social disharmony within the country have taken the India-Pakistan relations to a new low.
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