Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and the armed forces service chiefs to discuss the situation along the border with China, as Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a tense stand-off in Pangong Tso and the Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh.
Details of the meeting, which was reported by NDTV, are awaited. Modi also reportedly met with Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla. The high-level meeting also comes after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met with the three armed forces service chiefs, ostensibly to discuss reforms within the armed forces.
Top Army commanders are also set to begin a three-day conference on Wednesday where an in-depth review of the situation in Eastern Ladakh will be discussed, alongside a discussion on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. While no bullets have been fired yet, scuffles between forces of both countries took place on May 5 and May 9 near Pangong Tso and in Sikkim respectively.
Satellite images analysed by OSINT analyst detresfa show China increasing activity and development of an air base less than 200km from Pangong Tso.
Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since the violent face-off on May 5.
While China has accused the Indian Army of trespassing into its territory, claiming that it was an "attempt to unilaterally change the status" of the LAC in Sikkim and Ladakh, India has refuted the charge, saying that the Chinese military was hindering normal patrolling by its troops. At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, "Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector or the Sikkim sector is not accurate,"
"Indian troops are fully familiar with the alignment of the Line of Actual Control in the India-China border areas and abide by it scrupulously. All Indian activities are entirely on the Indian side of the LAC," he added.
According to a PTI report, India plans to go ahead with infrastructure development in strategic areas along the nearly 3,500-km Sino-India border, notwithstanding China's well-coordinated efforts to stall them by attempting to vitiate the situation in areas like eastern Ladakh, government sources said on Tuesday.
It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has conveyed to top military brass that there was no need for reviewing the implementation of any of the key projects along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand or in Arunachal Pradesh in view of the aggressive behaviour by Chinese troops in several sensitive areas.
In view of the nearly 20-day standoff between the two sides, the Indian Army has significantly ramped up its presence in sensitive border areas in North Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh besides Ladakh to send across a message that India will not be wilting under any aggressive military posturing by China, the sources said.
They said Army Chief Gen M.M. Naravane has been briefing the defence minister about the fast evolving situation in eastern Ladakh on almost daily basis and it has been decided to put up a stiff counter to China's transgressions into Indian areas along the LAC, the de-facto boundary between the two countries.
The Chinese side has been particularly peeved at India laying a key road in the finger area of Pangong Tso Lake region besides another road connecting the Darbuk-Shayok-Daulat Beg Oldie road in Galwan Valley.
On May 5, Indian and Chinese army personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting in the Pangong Tso lake area in which soldiers on both sides sustained injuries.
In a separate incident on May 9, nearly 150 Indian and Chinese military personnel were engaged in a face-off near Naku La Pass in the Sikkim sector, leaving at least 10 soldiers from both sides with injuries.
The border tensions are reminiscent of the 73-day stand-off in the Doklam tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan in 2017.
With inputs from PTI