The Indian Army convoy is on the Srinagar-Radak road. (9 September 2020)
The Indian Defence minister Rajinat Singh (Rajnath Singh) said Thursday (September 17) that India government wanted to peace resolve the border dispute with China, but was prepared to deal with all kinds of contingencies to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Singh called on Beijing to implement the recent understanding and disengage their army. "We can start a war, but how it ends is out of our control ," Singh said. "
The military confrontation between China and India has entered its fifth month, with both sides deploying heavy troops in Ladakh, a strategically Tiibet 、 cold desert region.
Both sides accused each other of provoking the worst confrontation in decades and called for withdrawal.
Singh said in a speech in the lower house of parliament on Thursday that China has violated the agreement by gathering troops and weapons along the line of actual control in the Himalayas.
Mr. Singh said India's army was deployed to counter China's military build-up and thwart China's invasion. The border between the two countries is not clearly delineated. Mr. singh minister said beijing was trying to unilaterally change the status quo. He stated that "respect for and strict observance of the Line of Actual Control is the basis for peace tranquillity in the border areas. "
Beijing accused New Delhi of being responsible for the standoff. "The responsibility for the recent developments on the Sino-Indian border is not with China ," Ministry of Foreign Affairs speaker Wang Wenbin said at a regular journalist meeting Wednesday. He accused India of first violating bilateral agreements by crossing the border and firing guns to threat the security of China's border forces.
"It is imperative that the Indian side immediately correct the wrong practices, disengage from the site as soon as possible, and take practical action to ease the situation along the border ," Wang said. "
At a meeting in Moscow a week ago, the foreign ministers of China and India agreed to army their disengagement to cool tensions.
However, the two sides did not clearly plan how to implement the agreement. As conditions in the border areas remain volatile, the Indian military is preparing to keep army in the mountains above 4500 meters above sea level throughout the winter.
India has doubled spending on border roads in recent years to respond to Beijing's rapid infrastructure development across the border, Singh said.
Mountain roads are key to troop supply. In recent weeks, the Indian army has been transporting food, fuel and ammunition to the Ladakh area in preparation for the winter snowfall.
After a war broke out between China and India in 1962, the border dispute has not been resolved, but economic relationship recent decades, the border issues between the two countries have been shelved for decades. However, the recent stand-off has left the relationship of the two countries again high tension.
