On Friday, India warned China that trying to alter the status quo on the ground by resorting to force will not just damage the peace that existed on the border areas but can also have "ripples and repercussions" in the broader bilateral relationship, and demanded that Beijing stop its activities in eastern Ladakh.
Meanwhile a senior government official told The Indian Express that the armed forces had been given a “free hand” to deal with the situation and sufficient troops, military equipment and material have been moved to various areas along the 3,488-km-long disputed border with China.
While in an interview to PTI, India's ambassador to China Vikram Misri said that the only way to resolve the current military standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh was for Beijing to realise that trying to "change the status quo by resorting to force or coercion, is not the right way forward."
The Indian ambassador added that actions taken by the Chinese forces on the ground have damaged "considerable trust" in the bilateral relationship. Misri also said that it was entirely the responsibility of the Chinese side to take a careful view of the relations and to decide which direction the ties should move.
Noting that maintenance of peace and tranquillity "on the border is sine qua non for progress in the rest of bilateral relationship between India and China", Misri said: "The resolution of this issue is quite straight forward from our perspective. The Chinese side needs to stop creating obstruction and hindrances in the normal patrolling patterns of the Indian troops," he said. He also rubbished China's claim of sovereignty over Galwan Valley in Ladakh as "completely untenable", and asserted that these kinds of exaggerated claims are not going to help the situation.
Misri's strong comments came in response to the recent claims by the Chinese military and the foreign ministry of sovereignty over Galwan Valley.
Twenty Indian Army personnel including a colonel were killed in a clash with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on the night of June 15 in the biggest military confrontation between the two countries in over five decades.
