The road from Dubruk to BOD is entirely on the Indian side of the LAC region, he said (File)
Mumbai:
Diplomatic channels must be used to defuse tension in eastern Ladakh, but Chinese troops must be “evacuated” from the heights of the Galwan Valley, NCP chief Sharad Pawar told Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday .
The former defense minister, in a series of tweets, said that he had highlighted the threat to the Dubruk-DBO route due to the occupation by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of the adjacent hills during of the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Modi in the showdown with China.
It would be desirable to “put in place strategies using diplomatic channels to defuse the tension and make China understand the reason,” he said.
Pawar, who joined the meeting from Mumbai via videoconference, warned that the Chinese military was occupying the heights of the Galwan Valley with “a specific objective of dominating the Dubruk-BOD route on the Indian side”.
Chinese troops can decide to close the road at any time, and India will pay a heavy military cost if that happens, said the NCP chief at the meeting.
He told the Prime Minister that “compulsory measures” should be taken to “evacuate the PLA from the Galwan valley”.
Over the past three decades, China has quietly strengthened its position along the 4,000-km real line of control and has focused on expanding and strengthening its presence in the eastern sector of Ladakh, said M Pawar.
The road from Dubruk to DBO is entirely on the Indian side of the LAC, he said, adding that it is crucial for India that DBO is an advanced airstrip and provides an airfield for the army to the air responds quickly to any emergency, he said. .
“During my tenure as Minister of Defense, I visited China and signed the peace and tranquility agreement in 1993, which was the first peace effort after the 1962 war.
“The two countries have respected the terms of the agreement, except for a few minor incidents in relation to this incident,” he said.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
