New Delhi:
In what is the Indian Army's first response to the three-week long intrusion by China into Indian territory in Ladakh in April, Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General KT Parnaik has emphatically clarified India did not compromise its stand on the border issue. "We haven't yielded anything," he said to NDTV.
Neither side has disclosed the terms of the deal that ended the stand-off. About 50 Chinese soldiers had crossed the Line of Actual Control or the de-facto border and set up a remote camp at Daulat Beg in the Depsang Valley, 19 kilometres into Indian territory.
"The disengagement and de-escalation at Depsang/DBO was done without any compromise. No structures were dismantled by us," Lt General Parnaik said. Some reports had suggested that Delhi had agreed to Beijing's demands to dismantle some infrastructure in another disputed sector in order to defuse the stand-off.
On May 6, both sides agreed to pull forces back to positions held before the confrontation.
Lt General Parnaik, who oversees Army deployment on both China and Pakistan fronts, said Beijing may have planned the incursion in an attempt to take the advantage in negotiations over the disputed border.
Some experts and Indian officials say tensions are likely to persist in the Depsang Valley because the region is highly strategic and abuts the Karakoram Highway joining Pakistan to China, which Beijing hopes to develop into a high-traffic trade route linking it to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.