New Delhi, Jan 18: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday dismissed media reports of fresh Chinese troop build-up in Doklam saying the status quo remains in place. The government would once again reiterate that the status quo at the face-off site has not been altered. Any suggestion to the contrary is inaccurate and mischievous,” Raveesh Kumar, the official spokesperson of the MEA, said in a statement.
“Our attention has been drawn to some reports that question the accuracy of the position stated by the Government in respect to the situation in Doklam. Subsequently, in response to repeated questions about any change in the status quo at the face-off site, Government had stated that there was no basis for such imputations,” he added.
“Last year a face-off situation that had arisen in the Doklam region was resolved following diplomatic discussions between India and China, based on which both sides arrived at an understanding for the disengagement of their border personnel at the face-off site,” the MEA clarified.
Earlier, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had said that the infrastructure development by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Doklam Plateau is temporary in nature. “As far as Doklam is concerned PLA soldiers are there in a part of the area, although not in numbers that we saw them in initially. They have carried out some infrastructure development, which is mostly temporary in nature”, General Rawat had said.
There had been reports of massive road construction and infrastructure build-up by Chinese troops near the face-off site in Dokla. The new satellite images of Doklam region show concrete Chinese posts, helipads, new trenches and several dozen armoured vehicles close to the point where the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops were locked in a 72-day standoff last year.
Earlier, reports came that China has built several tunnels and barracks near the disputed area in Doklam. However, the MEA had refuted such reports and said that there were no new developments at the face-off site in the Doklam plateau, since the August 28 disengagement.
India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff at Doklam, an area claimed by both Bhutan and China. India had intervened on Bhutan’s behalf as Chinese building activities threatened ‘Chicken’s Neck’– a narrow strip of land connecting Indian mainland to its northeastern states.