The visit comes in the backdrop of a marathon 10-hour Corps Commander level talks at Moldo
Amid high tensions with China, India's Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Manoj Mukund Naravane will be visiting Ladakh today to take stock of the situation in the region. The Army chief will also meet soldiers who were injured in the Galwan valley clash.
The visit comes in the backdrop of a marathon 10-hour Corps Commander level talks at Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Chushul to discuss the ongoing dispute in Ladakh. Last week, as many as 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives in the face-off in the Galwan Valley after an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during the de-escalation in eastern Ladakh.
Earlier, the central government had approved emergency funds for the Indian Army to buy any weapons systems under Rs 500 crore rupees. This is the first time that the armed forces have been granted such authority since the 2019 Balakot airstrike, when Indian warplanes had crossed the de facto border in Kashmir and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.
The armed forces can now buy any weapons system which they feel is necessary during war. The Indian Army has also been given full freedom to give a befitting response to any Chinese 'misadventure'.
The rules of engagement at the LAC have changed and field commanders have been sanctioned to use firearms under 'extraordinary circumstances' using all resources at their disposal.
Two agreements signed earlier between India and China, in 1996 and 2005, respectively, did not permit the use of firearms in these areas.
According to the terms of an agreement signed in 1996, “neither side shall open fire or hunt with guns or explosives within 2km from the line of actual control".
Meanwhile, Chinese state media Global Times' editor Hu Xijin called the change in the lines of engagement as a "serious violation" of the agreement between New Delhi and Beijing.
The marathon meeting between the two countries is likely to continue today (June 23, Tuesday) and might even spill over to tomorrow (June 24, Wednesday).
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 "Indian Army chief General MM Naravane")
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