No Indian troops missing in action, efforts on to resolve issues with China: MEA

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that India and China are in touch with each other through their embassies and working to resolve all differences through dialogue.

“Military officials from both sides are in touch along with other border mechanisms. We are working to resolve differences through dialogue. We remain committed to ensuring India’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, the MEA said in a statement.

Speaking on the Galwan Valley face-off issue, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said, “While we remain convinced of the need for maintenance of peace and tranquillity on border areas and resolution of differences through dialogue, at the same time as PM Narendra Modi said yesterday, we are strongly committed to ensuring India's sovereignty & territorial integrity.”

The MEA official further said that India expects China to confine its activities to its side of the border, adding that the Chinese side departed from the consensus to disengage. 

He maintained that the Indian activities are always confined to the Indian side of the LAC. “PM Modi has asked China to restrict to its side of the LAC and respect the LAC and take corrective steps,” the MEA official said in a press briefing.

The MEA spokesperson, while endorsing the Indian Army’s statement, said that “no Indian soldier is missing in action’’ why clarifying that no one was in China’s captivity.

The response from MEA came after Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the border situation is ''overall stable and controllable.'' 

“We believe that under the guidance of consensus reached by leaders of two countries, two sides can properly handle the situation, jointly safeguard peace and stability along the border, and promote healthy and stable bilateral relations,” Lijiam said.

He, however, reiterated that China has repeatedly said that the incident happened because the Indian front-line troops blatantly broke the consensus reached by the military chiefs of both sides.

Meanwhile, talks between Major Generals of India and China in the Galwan Valley remained inconclusive as no immediate disengagement or change in ground has taken place. More talks will take place in the coming days, news agency ANI reported.

On the other hand, front-line bases of the Indian Army and the Air Force along the nearly 3,500 km de-facto border with China have been put on high alert in sensitive Galwan Valley.

The Army has already rushed in additional troops to all its key front-line bases and formations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, the sources said

The Indian Army had earlier said that 20 of its soldiers were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops during a face-off in the Galwan Valley on June 15 night. 

This is the biggest ever military confrontation between the two armies in over five decades. In a statement, the army said that almost the same number of Chinese troops have been killed during the clashes in the Galwan Valley.

On June 16, the Indian Army had said in a statement, "Indian and Chinese troops have disengaged at the Galwan area where they had earlier clashed on the night of 15/16 June 2020. 17 Indian troops who were critically injured in the line of duty at the stand-off location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries, taking the total number of those killed in action to 20. The Indian Army is firmly committed to protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the nation," the official release had said.