During his visit, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur interacted with officers of ITBP and the Army.
Shimla:
Following a visit to Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti districts along the India-China border, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has said China is strengthening its infrastructure in the Tibet region.
“It is true that China is trying to strengthen its infrastructure in our border area that aligns with Tibet, we will inform the Centre about it. They (China) have also started some surveillance activities via road at a height higher than ours,” the Chief Minister said.
During his visit on Friday, Mr Thakur interacted with officers of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Dogra Scouts and the 15th Bihar Regiment at the army helipad Samdo in Lahaul-Spiti.
India and China have been locked in a standoff along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh since last year.
The tensions on the border peaked in June last year when a clash between soldiers of both sides in Galwan Valley left 20 Indian soldiers dead and also resulted in an unconfirmed number of casualties on the Chinese side.
Following several rounds of negotiations at the military and diplomatic levels, the Chinese Defence Ministry in February announced that troops of both sides had started “synchronized and organized disengagement” in keeping with the consensus reached at a Corps Commanders’ meeting on January 24.
Soon after, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Parliament India and China had reached an agreement on disengagement at Pangong Tso in Ladakh.
“Our sustained talks with China have led to agreement on disengagement on the north and south banks of Pangong Lake. After this agreement, India-China will remove forward deployments in a phased, coordinated manner,” the Defence Minister said in his statement in the Rajya Sabha. “I want to assure this House that in these talks we have not conceded anything,” he asserted.
Later that month, Mr Singh said the disengagement process in the area is complete.
The two sides have since been engaged in talks to extend the disengagement process to areas where there could be friction. There was no forward movement in this direction during the 11th round of military negotiations on April 9.