India again rejects China's Galwan Valley sovereignty claim

After Rahul Gandhi's critical tweet, Govt says it did tell China to respect its LAC with India

India on Thursday once again dismissed China’s claim on Galwan Valley as “exaggerated and untenable”, even as it underlined that respecting and observing the Line of Actual Control (LAC) were key to keeping the disputed boundary between the two nations calm.

New Delhi reiterated its position on Beijing’s claim on Galwan Valley two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for not asserting India’s sovereignty on the area in the statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the phone-call between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 5.

The statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Government on Wang-Doval talks, however, had a not-so-subtle reference to Beijing’s claim of sovereignty on Galwan Valley.

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Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of the MEA, on Thursday said that the Government had noted “some inaccurate and uninformed comments” about the process of disengagement of Indian Army and the Chinese PLA on the scenes of the face-offs along the LAC and its implications.

He recalled the several statements issued by the government in the last few weeks, spelling out “categorically” the position of the government that China’s recent claims on the Galwan Valley area were “exaggerated and untenable” and that the LAC must be strictly respected and observed as it was “the basis for peace and tranquillity in the border areas”. He also recalled New Delhi’s position that neither side should take any unilateral action to alter the LAC.

China in early May started claiming sovereignty over Galwan Valley, which was under effective control of the Indian Army for the past six decades.

The talks between Doval and Wang – the Special Representatives of New Delhi and Beijing for boundary negotiations – added momentum to the “disengagement” along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, with both the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pulling back front-line troops from the scenes of the face-offs. The senior diplomats of India and China are likely to hold a video-conference on Friday under the framework of the “Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on Border Affairs.

After the Chinese PLA pulled back its troops from the scene of the June 15 clash at Galwan Valley, the Indian Army too withdrew troops 1.5 kilometers away from the spot, in keeping with the disengagement understanding reached between the senior military officials of the two nations during the three meetings they had last month to resolve the nine-week-long stand-off. The withdrawal of Indian Army troops from the area to reciprocate to pullback by the Chinese PLA as well as the moratorium on patrolling triggered speculation about an understanding between the two sides to create a “buffer zone” to avoid flashpoints.

"We remain convinced of the need for maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and the resolution of differences through dialogue,” Srivastava, the MEA spokesperson, said in New Delhi on Thursday. “At the same time,” he added we are also strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty and territorial integrity”.