NEW DELHI: India has decided to maintain a matching response with China in Ladakh in view of the nearly 20-day standoff and troops mobilisation by the neighbouring country, government sources hinted on Tuesday.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh feels that the Ladakh situation should not lead to slackening of the infrastructure development project on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control. The projects should go on notwithstanding China's well-coordinated efforts to stall them by attempting to vitiate the situation in areas like eastern Ladakh, the sources said.
Singh chaired a meeting with the three service chiefs and the CDS General Bipin Rawat to take a stock of the standoff situation in Ladakh and the commensurate response from the Indian side. “The Minister was briefed on the situation and the steps taken by the Army.” told a source and added that the meeting went for a little more than an hour.
While it was affirmed that the situation will be getting resolved with diplomatic means and talks, India will maintain the hold on the ground in its areas. Also it was decided that the road construction along the LAC will continue.
China initiated the standoff as an objection to road construction activity on the Indian side between Finger 3 and Finger 4 and also on an arterial ling to Galwan Valley being built as an offshoot from the 255 km long Darbuk-Shyok and DBO road.
China had forcefully stopped the Indian Army patrol on the intervening night of May 5-6 at location Finger 5 on the Northern flank of the Pangong Tso Lake in the Eastern Ladakh. Since then the standoff spread to two more points - the Galwan Valley and another point in between the two.
The situation at 3488 km long LAC has been tense after the clashes at Finger 5 and Naku La, Muguthang in Sikkim on May 9 followed by an increase in military vigilance along with all three sectors of LAC - Western, Central and Eastern.