Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 18.

An influential Chinese newspaper on Monday indicated the opening of another flashpoint on the Sino-India border but played down the possibility of serious tensions as had happened at Doklam in 2017

Global Times, that advocates a hardheaded foreign policy approach, quoted unnamed military sources as saying that Chinese border defence troops have made necessary moves in response to “India’s recent, illegal construction of defence facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region.”

The media outlet put its own spin for discounting the build-up of tensions in a sector that was last in the news during the 1962 conflict. “India is merely seeking to divert its domestic attention due to unsuccessful handling of Covid pandemic, and China has a military advantage there. So, the Indian military won’t escalate the incident,” it said quoting Chinese analysts.

The paper accused India of crossing the boundary line in Galwan Valley region of Ladakh and entering Chinese territory. “The Indian side built defence fortifications and obstacles to disrupt Chinese border defence troops’ normal patrol activities, purposefully instigated conflicts and attempted to unilaterally change the current border control situation.”

Indian media too has been reporting tensions in this sector for the past one week.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not commented on this flare-up but it reacted to troop face-offs last week in two sectors by expressing confidence in the ability of the existing mechanisms to resolve the issue.

The MEA also suggested that the face-offs were not part of a grand strategy by explaining that they occasionally occur due to difference in perception of the alignment of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). “Situations have arisen on the ground that could have been avoided if we had a common perception of the LAC,” MEA spokesperson Anurag Shrivastav had then said.

The spokesperson also noted that the India-China border has largely been peaceful because PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have “directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides”.