Talking tough ahead of Army Day on 15 January,  Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday said India will not allow its territory to be invaded by anyone. Maintaining that the numbers of Chinese troops in Doklam had thinned, he said China may be a powerful country but India is not a weak nation either.

Addressing the media here, Gen Rawat said the time had come for India to shift focus to its northern border and the country was capable of handling China’s assertiveness along it.

He said Chinese troops have maintained their presence in Doklam on the border though their numbers have thinned. He said the road construction had been on in Doklam since 2000 but the Chinese soldiers had come close to Tosa Bala, dividing north and south Doklam in June last year just before the India-China standoff started. General Rawat said the Chinese had come with large manpower and equipment. “We felt they will try to claim the whole Doklam… It was also posing a threat to us as it was changing the status quo,” he said. Gen Rawat said the Chinese presence in the northern part of Doklam continued but has thinned out and the level of activity has also gone down.

“We have focused too long on the western side,” the Army chief said. On the increasing border transgressions  and contact between Indian and Chinese soldiers, he said the numbers have gone up as India had deployed more troops in more forward positions along the border.

Amid aggressive Chinese efforts to increase its influence in the region, the Army chief said India cannot allow its neighbours to drift away to China. “China is a powerful country but we are not a weak nation,” General  Rawat said.

Referring to the US warnings to Pakistan over its handling of terrorism,  he said India will have to wait and see its impact. Terrorists are a disposable commodity in Pakistan and the Indian Army approach has been to ensure that it feels the pain, he said.

The government said Indian and Chinese troops have resolved through established mechanism the issue related to China’s attempt to build a road in the Tuting area of Arunachal Pradesh.

The issue has been resolved through established mechanism, spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Raveesh Kumar said yesterday. On December 28, Indian troops foiled attempts by Chinese road building teams to construct a track around 1 km inside the Indian territory in Tuting, government sources had said. They had said the civilian teams went back when confronted by the Indian troops, but left behind two excavators and some other equipment. The issue was amicably resolved at a Border Personnel Meeting between the two sides in Arunachal on January 6.

Replying to a question on whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month, Kumar said details of the PM’s engagement will be known only two-three days before the visit. It will not be proper to comment on the issue, he said.

PTI adds from Beijing: All wings of the Chinese military have stepped up drills at home and abroad focusing their training on the plateau region post Dokalam, the official media reported today.

The PLA has been executing military training instructions issued by President Xi Jinping on January 3.