Army Chief says China border scene sensitive, trust biggest casualty

The situation on the border with China remains sensitive with trust becoming the biggest casualty. While positive signalling has come from diplomatic channels on further resolution, the two militaries will sit together and see how it can be translated on the ground, Army chief General Upendra Dwivedi has said.

He said the situation will remain sensitive till things move back to how they were before April 2020, including patrolling rights. While describing the current situation as stable, he said the Army is "fully operationally prepared to face any kind of a contingency".

"We have come a long way in the sense whatever were the low hanging fruit, those have already been resolved. When it comes to the difficult situations where we have a different perception from both sides, it means that both sides need to have, in any negotiation, a win-win situation. Some kind of indication have been given from the diplomatic side and now the military side will sit together and see how this can be translated on the ground," he said at the Chanakya dialogue organised by the Army here on Tuesday.


Two friction points that remain unresolved are Chinese deployments at Depsang that have cut off access to several patrolling points and creation of a temporary camp at Demchock.

AGNIVEERs

He said the feedback on Agniveers from ground commanders has been excellent and commanding offices are happy with the recruited soldiers, adding that by yearend, the Army will have about one lakh Agniveers in service.

JOINT COMMANDS

He said that a lot of progress has been made on creation of joint theatre commands and the armed forces have finalised a structure and reached a consensus. He added several steps have been taken to increase integration of forces and at present, 200 fields have been identified for jointness, out of which 30% has been achieved and the rest of the areas are being worked out.

MANIPUR

He said while the situation is stable today, things remain tense. He said that the Army and Assam Rifles are trying to bring trust back to communities but cracks in the social fabric will take time to heal.

ISRAEL WAR

He described the pager and walkie talkie attack on Hezbollah by Israel as a masterstroke, saying that the creation of a shell company to provide the equipment took years of planning.