Military Option Open If Indo-China Talks on Ladakh Fail: CDS Rawat

The statement by Rawat comes just days after Rajnath Singh’s meeting with NSA Ajit Doval and the top military brass.

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat

(Photo: PTI)

Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat on Monday, 24 August, said that the military option is open if talks with China fail over the Ladakh stand-off.

“The military option to deal with transgressions by the Chinese Army in Ladakh is on but it will be exercised only if talks at the military and the diplomatic level fail,” he said, reported news agency ANI.

The statement by Rawat comes just days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday held a meeting with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and the top military brass to discuss the situation at the border with China.

CDS’ Review Meeting With Rajnath

According to news agency IANS, India has to build at least 5,000 habitats, and construction in the inhospitable terrain generally stops in September.

Singh held the review meeting with Doval, CDS Rawat and the three service chiefs on the prevailing situation at the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh where Chinese troops are still camping.

“The meeting happened for almost one-and-a-half-hours in South Block,” a source told IANS.

The Current Situation at the LAC

The de-escalation of troops at the Line of Actual Control has stopped for now as the disengagement talks between India and China have hit a roadblock, IANS added. China has reportedly refused to move back from its present military position north of Pangong Tso and Depsang.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has refused to pull back eastwards from the 8km stretch it has occupied from Finger-4 to Finger-8 by building scores of new fortifications there since early May.

China has also increased its troop deployment at Lipulekh, the place that became a trigger for strained relations between New Delhi and Kathmandu. Lipulekh is a tri-junction between India, Nepal, and China situated atop the Kalapani Valley.

China has changed the status quo on the Line of Actual Control at various places. India has objected to it and is taking up the matter with China at all levels.

Both the countries are locked in a more than three-month-long stand-off at multiple points, hitherto unprecedented, along the border.

During the meeting, it was also discussed that Beijing has started troop and material build-up in depth areas across the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control.

India has found that China has deployed troops, artillery and armour in three sectors of the LAC – western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh), and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).

(With Inputs from ANI and IANS.)