16.9.20

China violated mutual agreements, militarised border: Rajnath tells LS

Amidst a barrage of questions from the Opposition on the handling of the border situation along the Line of Actual Control with China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that China continues to be in illegal occupation of approximately 38,000 sq. kms in the Union Territory of Ladakh as ‘China does not accept the customary and traditional alignment of the boundary’ between the two countries.

Singh gave a chronological account of the worsening relations with China over transgressions along the LAC in Eastern Ladakh and maintained that ‘while our armed forces abide scrupulously’ by the mutually-agreed norms, ‘this has not been reciprocated by the Chinese side.’ Singh said that in addition to the 38,000 sq km in Ladakh illegally occupied by China, ‘under the so-called Sino-Pakistan‘Boundary Agreement of 1963, Pakistan illegally ceded 5,180 sq km of Indian territory in PoK to China.’ “China also claims about 90,000 sq km of Indian territory in the Eastern Sector of the India-China boundary in Arunachal Pradesh,” he added.

The Opposition had put in several notices to the Speaker to allow a discussion or an intervention to raise questions on the issue but were turned away leading to a walkout by the Congress.

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