Northern Army Commander Lt. General Upendra Dwivedi on Friday said that the Indian Army has regular hotline exchanges with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh and we have stopped the system of body push and no physical contact between troops of both sides is being ensured.

Lt. General Dwivedi, who was talking to media persons on the sidelines of the two days North Tech Symposium at Udhampur, said that the Indian Army and PLA are in regular contact through the hotlines to prevent small incidents from escalating. Whenever there is an irritant, we immediately call for talks at the battalion or brigade level and come to an amicable solution.

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The Army Commander said that India has developed strategic patience as it is negotiating from a position of assertiveness to resolve the two-year standoff in eastern Ladakh. During negotiations, India wants Chinese forces to step back, but there is a difference in perception on how that should be done.

Speaking about the situation along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, Lt Gen Dwivedi said that it is “stable but it is in the state of heightened alert. We don’t want a repeat of the situation which took place in April 2020.” “The force and equipment deployment is calibrated in nature and we will make sure any misadventure by the adversary does not take place again.” “We must negotiate instead of letting the violence level get heightened again,” he said.

The trust which was broken in April 2020, has to be rebuilt and how that has to be rebuilt, let us de-escalate. Let us withdraw the military to larger distances from LAC and once that happens, I am sure the de-escalation will take place automatically. That is what our aim is and at the military level, we have always been saying so, and we are in full synergy with the MEA on the same subject.

Talking about the situation on the Line of Control with Pakistan, Lt General Dwivedi said since 2021, the ceasefire understanding has been working very well, and in the last few months the ceasefire violations have been limited, to just two to three exceptions. However, he said, infiltration will not be tolerated for which the counter-infiltration grid has to be fool-proof.

Lt Gen Dwivedi said that weapons are being dropped across the international border and the LoC with the help of drones. He said some American equipment from Afghanistan has made its way into Jammu and Kashmir, he mentioned that M4 rifles, made in the US and night vision devices, made in the UK and China have been found.