India-China standoff live updates: PLA opens new front in Depsang Bulge

UK PM terms Sino-India standoff ‘very serious, worrying situation'; calls for dialogue, reports PTI.

Responding to Conservative Party MP Flick Drummond on the implications for British interests of a dispute between a “Commonwealth member and the world's largest democracy on the one side, and a state that challenges our notion of democracy on the other,” he described the escalation in eastern Ladakh as “a very serious and worrying situation”, which the UK is "monitoring closely".

PLA has virtually opened up a new front in the Depsang Bulge area, a table-top plateau to the north of Galwan, with a huge deployment of troops and heavy weapons to threaten the Burtse camp and Raki Nala areas of India.

PLA opens new front with heavy troop build-up in Depsang Bulge.

The satellite images on Wednesday showed that Chinese troops have come back in larger numbers to the “Patrolling Point-14 (PP-14)” area in the Galwan Valley region, the site of the brutal skirmish on June 15. This time, PLA appears to have set up a large camp with gun positions at the site near the “Y-junction” of the Shyok and Galwan rivers, which is slightly over a kilometre below PP-14, a reference point that marks the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Read: Satellite images, reports indicate PLA’s set up camp at clash site

Gen Naravane undertook an aerial survey of the forward areas in Ladakh and reviewed the situation with Northern Command chief Lt-General Y K Joshi and 14 Corps commander Lt-General Harinder Singh.

The Chinese troops have set up a much larger camp with gun positions in place of the observation post that was destroyed by Indian troops in the bloody clash of June 15.

Latest commercial satellite images and ground reports indicate Chinese troops are back on Indian territory in the Galwan Valley region in eastern Ladakh.

In an official readout, the MEA said, “The Indian side conveyed its concerns on the recent developments in eastern Ladakh, including on the violent face-off in Galwan Valley area on June 15 that had resulted in casualties.”

Both sides promised to “implement the understanding on disengagement and de-escalation that was reached by senior commanders on June 6”, the MEA said in a statement.

India and China got down to the hard business of diplomatic negotiations to resolve the issue of Chinese intrusions and military build-up in eastern Ladakh.