“It’s merely a tactic being employed by China to exert pressure on India and the rest of the world to view the Chinese contention in this regard. It’s basically a political issue with no military connotation,” Singh observed on the sidelines of a CII programme on defence-industry cooperation.

Singh is widely tipped to be the next army chief. According to him, it is just “a war of words and there’s no intrusion or belligerence.”

He denied the possibility of untoward incidents during the proposed visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh later this month. Political observers feel the Chinese protests are actually aimed at creating a political furore before the Dalai Lama’s visit so that it is either postponed or cancelled.

Singh, however, declined to be drawn into this controversy, but denied reports that there was an escalation of strength on the Chinese side of the international border.  There were local media reports about increased army movements along the Sino-Indian border in different parts of Northeast.