Arunachal exercise 100 km inside LAC, says Army

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 5

A day after China reportedly objected to Indian Army’s exercise in the Himalayas, Army sources said the exercise was taking place around 100 km from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto border between the two countries, and that it was scheduled much in advance.

Named operation ‘Him-Vijay’, the military exercise in Arunachal Pradesh will culminate on October 25 and had nothing to do with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit, said sources. They said the same Corps was exercising in eastern Ladakh when the 73-day Doklam stand-off was ensuing in July-August 2017.

The Mountain Strike Corps is carrying out the exercise at a height of around 15,000 ft in Arunachal Pradesh. Sources the formation undertakes such exercise for familiarisation and acclimatisation during the months preceding winters and post-winters. A part of exercise is rapid airlift of troops from plains to the newly made advanced landing ground in Arunachal Pradesh. This is to test the new concept of integrated battle groups (IBG’s) for speed of deployment.

China claims the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of southern Tibet. India has maintained Arunachal is an “integral and inalienable part” of the country. The two countries have held over 20 rounds of talks to resolve the border dispute.

In their first informal summit at Wuhan in April 2018, Modi and Xi had decided to issue “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communication and build trust and understanding between the border guarding forces of the two countries. The summit had taken place months after Indian and Chinese troops were locked in a 73-day-long standoff in Doklam.