This is an archive article published on August 26, 2017

Sikkim standoff: Army chief Bipin Rawat warns against complacency, says more Doklam-like incidents possible in future

Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a stand-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector since last two months after Indian troops halted the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

4 min readNew DelhiAug 27, 2017 01:03 AM IST First published on: Aug 26, 2017 at 11:47 PM IST

Doklam standoff, Sikkim standoff, India-China relations, Army General Bipin Rawat, Indian Army, Chinese troops, Pakistan, indian express

Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat. (Source: PTI)

Amid the ongoing standoff between the troops of India and China at Doklam in the Sikkim sector, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Saturday said that Beijing is attempting to “change the status quo” on its border with India and predicted that incidents like the current impasse in Doklam are likely to “increase” in future. “The recent stand-off in the Doklam plateau by the Chinese side attempting to change the status quo are issues which we need to be wary about, and I think such kind of incidents are likely to increase in the future,” Rawat said, while delivering the General B C Joshi Memorial Lecture on ‘India’s Challenges in the Current Geo-Strategic Construct’ organised by the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies of Savitribai Phule Pune University.

General Rawat also warned his forces against complacency and called upon the soldiers to be extra vigilant against the Chinese forces. “We should not be complacent. Let us say that this stand-off is resolved, but our troops should not feel that it can not happen again in different sector,” Rawat said. “It is always better to be prepared and alert than think that this will not happen again. So my message to troops is that do not let your guard down,” the Army Chief added.

Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a stand-off in the Doklam area of the Sikkim sector since last two months after Indian troops halted the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

He also admitted that “pockets of dispute and contested claims to the territory continue to exist” between both the Asian giants. “These are due to differing perceptions on the alignments of the Line of Actual Control (LAC),” he said. “Transgressions across Line of Actual Control do happen and sometimes they do lead to some kind of misunderstanding between the forward troops…however, we do have joint mechanisms in place to address such situations,” the Army chief added.

The Indian Army has been advocating during the flag meeting with China that both sides should return to the pre-June 16 positions (before the stand-off began), but no resolution has been found as of yet, Rawat said. “Now it is happening at the diplomatic and political level, as it needs to be resolved diplomatically and through political initiatives,” he said.

He also observed that China has been enhancing its influence in the regional security environment. “It is doing so by increasing defence and economic partnerships in the neighbourhood, especially in Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) passing through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) challenges India’s sovereignty,” he stated.

Launching a scathing attack on Pakistan for waging a proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army Chief said the increasing presence of transnational actors with fundamental ideologies in that country was a matter of grave concern. “Pakistan’s unabated reliance and support to Jihadi groups have serious ramifications. This can lead to the possibility of Pakistan being a conduit for the eastward spread of fundamentalist and the Islamic ideology. This lends a complex dimension to the threat not only for us, but also for other countries of South and East Asia, including China,” Rawat said.

With PTI inputs