LAC Situation Stable But Sensitive, No Friction In One Year: Army Chief Gen Pande

He said that a total of 20 senior higher military commander meetings and 14 WMCC meetings on China-India Border Affairs have taken place since April 2020.

New Delhi: Chief of Army Staff General Manoj Pande on Monday said that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is stable but 'sensitive.' He further stated that there haven't been any friction areas between India and China in the last one year.

In an interview with ANI, the Chief of Army Staff said, "Situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) remains stable but is sensitive. In the last one year or thereabouts, we haven't had any more friction areas in this. In terms of our efforts at resolution, our talks and dialogue both at the military level as well as the diplomatic level continue with the adversary."

He said that a total of 20 senior higher military commander meetings and 14 meetings of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on China-India Border Affairs have taken place since April 2020.

"We have had a total of 20 senior higher military commander level meetings and 14 WMCC meetings since April 2020. So the means of these talks, we're hopeful that we'll find a resolution," he told ANI.

Since May 2020, when the Chinese troops tried to aggressively change the status quo on LAC in eastern Ladakh, both sides have been deployed in forward positions near Patrolling Point 15, which emerged as a friction point in the wake of the Galwan clash.

On the preparedness levels along the northern border, General Pande said that the Army's deployment remains robust as well as balanced and the Army is also maintaining adequate reserves to be able to deal with any contingencies.

"While this is happening, we are also focussing on our capability development in these areas in terms of infusion of technology, modernisation, inducting better systems such as our protected vehicles, surveillance drones, better communication radio sets etc. Simultaneously, our effort and focus are also being on infrastructure development. Be it the habitat, forward connectivities to the LAC, or strategic road connectivity...it also includes extending power supply to our forward troops, improving communication in terms of 5G communication to our troops deployed in forward areas," the Army chief said, reported ANI.

"We are also working alongside other government agencies, local administration and the local population to make sure that our preparedness levels along the LAC always remain high," he added.