External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday (May 14, 2024) referred to the 2020 India-China standoff in Galwan and said there is an abnormal deployment of forces now at the Line of Actual Control.
“In 2020, the Chinese in violation of multiple agreements brought a large number of forces at the border, and they did it at a time when we were under COVID lockdown in this country,” Jaishankar said while attending the Viksit Bharat@2047 event, hosted by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC), in Kolkata.
“India responded by counter deployment of forces,” he said.
He said four years after the Galwan standoff took place the Indian forces deployed at the valley were ahead of the normal base positions.
“Today, there is a very abnormal deployment along the LAC,” he said.
He questioned Indian businesses whether ‘buying’ from China was good for the country’s future.
“Why is Indian businesses buying so much from China? Is it good to be dependent on some other source?” he said referring to the economic challenges which India is facing due to the current relationship with China.
What happened in Galwan in 2020?
Twenty Indian personnel, including a Colonel, were killed in violent clashes with Chinese troops on June 15, 2020 along the LAC in Ladakh, in what is possibly the worst incident between the two countries in decades.