India issues warning to China, says will open fire in self-defence if PLA troops come to our positions at LAC: Sources

As tensions regarding the border dispute between China, and India continue to escalate, the latter has issued a warning to the former, saying that its soldiers will open fire in self-defence if the People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops come to India's positions at LAC, according to government sources.

After the Galway valley incident, India has made it clear to China that "if Chinese soldiers come to our positions, we will open fire to defend our soldiers and there positions". 

The government sources said on Thursday that India has asked China to disengage along the LAC but China remains adamant.

The tactics of China is to come forward in huge numbers near the patrolling points of India.

On September 25, sources had said that India has conveyed during the talks with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Maldo, on the Chinese side of the LAC in eastern Ladakh, that disengagement should take place from A to Z area.

During the talks with China, India has conveyed that the withdrawal should take place from Daspang plain to the southern area of Pangong Tso and it should not be selective.

However, China is not ready to accept that PLA first transgressed into the LAC and has asked the Indian Army to withdraw first from southern Pangong Tso.

China's activities are being monitored continuously despite its assurance of not increasing the number of troops along the LAC border. China had assured in the sixth round of talks not to increase its troops' deployment. 

Indian Air Force combat aircraft are keeping a close watch on LAC to meet every challenge. The sky of Ladakh continued to resonate throughout the night on Wednesday with the roar of Rafale, Mirage-2000, and MiG-29. DRDO has developed the silencer system in the fighter Sukhoi-30 MKI, which was tested. That is, Sukhoi can surprise the enemy by flying without his growl. Apart from this, the Indian Army has also increased its surveillance to the forward posts.

In the 14-hour meeting of military commanders on 21 September, several consents were reached to ease tensions.  Both the countries have agreed not to mobilize more troops along the border and not to try to change the situation through unilateral ground action. Because of the lessons learned from previous meetings and the unreliability of China, everything is being monitored form land to sky.  

 External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India and China need to adjust to each other's rise which has been the dominating factor in "diplomacy of both countries". Speaking at the world economic forum development impact summit, Jaishankar said that India and China need "to accommodate each other's rise".

He stated that both the countries will have "some common interest and many interests which are more individual or nationally centred and that process of how to adjust to each other when both are rising, to my mind is one of the big issues in the diplomacy of both the countries".

India and China have decided to have the next meeting of the Senior Commanders at the earliest, said the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday on the India-China border issue.

"The way ahead will be to refrain from making any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo, while the two sides continue their discussions to achieve complete disengagement in all friction areas and to ensure full restoration of peace and tranquility in the border areas," said the MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava at a briefing.