Hyderabad: The Indian armed forces were on a high alert and keeping a close watch on the situation along the border with China as the two sides looked to complete the disengagement process, Indian Air Force (IAF) chief RKS Bhadauria said on Saturday.
India and China have been locked in a standoff in the Ladakh sector for over a year, and are currently negotiating a withdrawal of troops and weapons from friction points on the disputed border. The Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have held 11 rounds of talks between corps commander-rank officers, but the negotiations have only had limited success in hammering out an agreement for disengagement of rival soldiers from friction points.
The IAF chief said discussions were going on between the two sides for the next round of talks on the issue. “There is a proposal for the next commander-level talks and a decision will be taken soon. The first attempt is to continue with talks and do disengagement of balance friction points and follow it with de-escalation,” he said after attending the Combined Graduation Parade of the newly trained flight cadets at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal, on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The first round of talks took place on June 6 last year, days before the Galwan Valley clash, the first deadly skirmish between the two troops in over five decades. It left 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese troops dead and pushed the bilateral relationship to breaking point.
Bhadauria said the Indian forces were not letting their guard down and were better prepared now than last year. “The ground reality is being monitored closely in terms of current leftover locations, deployments, or any changes. We are taking all required actions on our parts,” he said.
The air force chief added that the IAF was undergoing a “monumental transformation” due to an evolving security challenge. “IAF is undergoing a monumental transformation. Rapid infusion of niche technologies and combat power in every facet of our operations has never been as intense as it is now. This is primarily because of the unprecedented and rapidly evolving security challenges that we face…,” he said. Bhadauria said they were committed to inducting the Rafale aircraft into the IAF by 2022.
“The target [for Rafale induction] is 2022… Broadly, we are absolutely on target on the Rafale induction plan,” he said. In 2016, India signed an inter-governmental agreement with France to procure 36 Rafale jets at a cost ₹59,000 crore.
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