Border dispute created by China as if part of a mission: Rajnath Singh on eastern Ladakh standoff

India on Monday accused neighbouring China and Pakistan of escalating tension in the border areas apparently “like a mission”, even as the senior commanders of its army and the communist country’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) held yet another round of talks to resolve the five-month-long stand-off in eastern Ladakh.

“It appears as if tension is being escalated as part of a mission, first by Pakistan and now even by China,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, after remotely inaugurating 44 bridges closer to the western, northern and north-eastern borders of the country.

Singh also said that India shared almost 7000-kilometre-long boundaries with China and Pakistan and often had to deal with tension in the border areas.

His remarks came even as the senior commanders of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA had the seventh round of meeting to resolve the stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations in eastern Ladakh.

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 14 Corps of the Indian Army, Lt. Gen. Harinder Singh, and Maj Gen Liu Lin of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) met at Chushul close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between the two nations in the western sector. They earlier had six rounds of talks after the stand-off started following the Chinese PLA’s unilateral move to push the LAC westward and the Indian Army’s counter-deployment in late April and early May.

They reviewed the implementation of the agreement the two sides reached during the last meeting on September 21 on stopping the further deployment of additional troops along the LAC. The two sides are expected to discuss a set of measures to avoid any violent face-off along the LAC as it might take weeks or months to restart the stalled process of mutual withdrawal of troops and end the stand-off.

Even as New Delhi is continuing military and diplomatic talks with Beijing to end the stand-off, it sought to send out the message to China and its all-weather ally Pakistan that it would continue to build border infrastructures. The bridges the Defence Minister inaugurated on Monday are spread over seven states and Union Territories – Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. The bridges were built by the Border Roads Organization.