Daily Times

Days after a deadly border clash with China, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said late Friday that Chinese troops did not enter the Asian nation’s territory “nor is any of our post captured.”

During a virtual meeting with political parties, Modi assured opposition leaders that Indian borders are secure and the military is capable of mounting a defense.

“Neither anyone has intruded into our territory nor taken over any post,” Modi said, adding that Indian “forces are doing what they have to do to protect the country, whether it is deployment, action or counter-action.”

“Our patrolling capacity has increased due to newly built infrastructure, especially along the LAC,” Modi said, referring to the Line of Control, a defacto border between India and China.

He highlighted the government has given primacy to the development of the border area infrastructure to make the borders more secure.

The Indian army had earlier said three soldiers had died, but added on Tuesday that a further 17 troops “who were critically injured in the line of duty at the standoff location and exposed to sub-zero temperatures in the high altitude terrain have succumbed to their injuries.”

The deaths are the first military casualties along the two countries’ disputed border for more than 40 years.

According to the earlier Indian army statement, there was loss of life “on both sides,” but it did not specify any number of Chinese casualties.

Senior military officials from both sides are currently meeting to defuse the situation, the statement added.

“India and China have been discussing through military and diplomatic channels the de-escalation of the situation in the border area in Eastern Ladakh,” said India’s External Affairs Ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava on Tuesday.

He said senior commanders had “agreed on a process for such de-escalation” during a “productive meeting” on Saturday, June 6, and ground commanders had met regarding the implementation.