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PLA conducts military drill amid stand-off in Doklam

Chinese military expert says the drill was meant to 'strike awe in India'

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Even as the Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday hoped that the boundary stand-off at the Doklam in Sikkim will end soon, China has conducted a military drill in the western part of the country. A Chinese military expert was quoted by Chinese media, saying the drill conducted by the Western Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was meant to "strike awe in India".

While initially denying any skirmish between the troops at Pangong Lake in Ladakh sector on August 15, Chinese Foreign Office now blamed Indian soldiers for "violent action" leading to scuffles and stone pelting. Beijing has also lodged a protest with India. Indian soldiers had foiled an attempt by the Chinese soldiers to enter Indian territory in Ladakh, resulting in stone pelting that caused minor injuries to troops on both the sides.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying claimed that the incident occurred when Chinese border troops were conducting normal patrol on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) around the Lake area "During this process, the Indian side took some violent actions and injured the Chinese border personnel," she claimed.

Earlier while confirming such incident Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the incident was discussed by the local army commanders, implying that it was a minor border incident. But the Chinese spokesperson Hua said "China has expressed strong dissatisfaction and lodged serious representation to India". She said what India did went against the two countries' consensus to keep the peace on the border and it endangered the situation there. She added that, "China is extremely dissatisfied with this"

Meanwhile, according to the China Central Television, 10 PLA units, including aviation and armoured forces, participated in the drills. Tibet, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan and Chongqing comes under the newly formed Western Theater Command. In July, the PLA had conducted a live drill in Tibet, which borders India.

On Monday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said a solution to the ongoing standoff between India and China at Doklam would be found soon and hoped that Beijing would make a positive move in this regard. "There is a deadlock going on at Dokalam between India and China. I believe there will be a solution soon. I hope China will undertake a positive initiative (to resolve the stand-off)," he said.

The minister said the world knew that India had never cast an evil eye on any country, had never attacked a nation nor did it harbour any expansionist attitude. "We never want to expand our borders...but I can say that our security forces and defence forces possess all the might to protect our borders," Singh said.

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