Gen Naravane reviewed “the forward posture of Indian troops” and the ground situation with Northern Command chief Lt General Y K Joshi and the Leh-based 14 Corps commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh, among other top officers, said sources

NEW DELHI: Army chief General M M Naravane visited Ladakh on Friday to review the operational situation along the unresolved border with China, which has witnessed rival troop build-ups after violent clashes. His visit came a day after the government asserted it remained “deeply committed to ensuring India’s security and sovereignty”.

Gen Naravane reviewed “the forward posture of Indian troops” and the ground situation with Northern Command chief Lt General Y K Joshi and the Leh-based 14 Corps commander Lt Gen Harinder Singh, among other top officers, said sources.

The Army, despite being contacted several times by TOI, refused to say anything about Gen Naravane’s half-a-day-long visit. But sources said the forward-deployed Indian troops, with major reinforcements from other areas for “a second line of defence”, will continue to maintain their “firm stance against yielding any ground” to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the ongoing confrontations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“The Northern Command is on a high alert due to repeated provocations by the PLA. But talks with China, through military and diplomatic channels, are also under way to defuse tensions. With regular brigadier-level meetings at border meeting points (BPMs) and hotline talks between local commanders, there is the possibility the situation will de-escalate in the coming days,” said a source.

Both India and China have pumped in additional troops, built fortifications and pitched tents at a few stretches along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, which include the northern bank of Pangong Tso(Tso means lake), Demchok and Galwan Valley areas, after the violent clashes between the rival soldiers on May 5-6. as was reported by TOI earlier. China had aggressively blocked Indian patrols and construction.

The major grouse of the PLA seems to be the completion of the 255-km Darbuk-Shyok-DBO road, which provides access to the Depsang area and Galwan Valley while ending near the Karakoram Pass, by India last year. But sources said India remains undeterred by the PLA’s “muscle-flexing”, in what seems to be a repeat of the major 73-day confrontation at Doklam near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction in June-August 2017. The Border Roads Organisation will resume its planned construction activity for roads and tunnels in different stretches along the 3,488-km long LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh soon, said sources.

The PLA has stepped-up needling of Indian troops, with the flash point being eastern Ladakh, along the LAC from the very beginning of this year. The Indian Army, in turn, is ready for the coming “hot summer” in terms of “transgressions and face-offs” in the 23 “disputed and sensitive areas” along the LAC, as was reported earlier.