India rejects China's allegations, holds Beijing responsible for tension at LAC

Rejecting the claims by Beijing on India’s alleged forward policy and illegal crossing of the Line of Control (LAC) as the root cause behind the border tension, India said that “amassing a large number of troops by the Chinese side and their proactive behaviour” are the actual reasons that have led to the present situation.

“We had already made our position clear a few days back that we reject such statements which have no basis in facts,” said Arindam Bagchi, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs on the remarks made by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Bagchi added, “It was the amassing of a large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter the status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquillity along the LAC in eastern Ladakh.” Stating that China continues to deploy armed forces in the border areas, Bagchi said India too had to make ‘appropriate counter deployments’ for security.

Bagchi added that they expect the Chinese to work towards early resolution of the issues along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, abiding by bilateral agreements and protocols. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in his meeting with Wang Yi earlier this month, also emphasised the same.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying quoted India’s ‘forward policy’ and illegal crossing of the LAC to encroach on China’s territory as the root cause of the border issue. Chunying added, “China opposes any arms race in the disputed border areas for the purpose of competition over control.”

Previously, India rejected China’s claim that the country violated all agreements that caused the Galwan Valley incident.