In a strategic move, India has raised its "operational readiness" by bringing in more troops along its entire border at Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, according to reports.
It's been nearly two months since India-China face-off began.The standoff started after Indian soldiers stopped the Chinese army from constructing a road in Doklam plateau. Neither India nor China has shown any signs of backing out from the issue.
Reports state that the standoff so far has involved as many as 300 soldiers guarding the borders on either side, with each troop standing a few metres apart.
China says that the plateau, going by the name Donglang, is a part of its land and it holds all rights to continue the construction of road. India-Bhutan both claim that the land belonged to the Himalayan kingdom and had warned Beijing about the serious security concerns that changes the status quo at the tri-junction area of India China and Bhutan.
'Caution level' increased
The 'caution level' amongst troops guarding the 1400 km Sino-Indian border has also been increased, according to a Press Trust of India report.
Officials said that the decision to increase deployment along the border was taken after carrying out detailed analaysis of China's aggressiveness at the Doklam dispute.
The Army's Sukna-based 33 Corps, as well as 3 and 4 corps based in Arunachal and Assam have been deployed to protect the sensitive border region. The officials did not declare any exact figure or percentage of increased deployment, thus maintaining confidentiality in "operational details."
The army sources on Friday said that they had not expected the tension to escalate and that the military alert was issued as a matter of caution, according to Reuters report.
Solve it amicably, says Bhutan
During a multi-lateral gathering at Kathmandu, on Friday, India told Bhutan 'not to get intimidated' by Beijing while the latter asked Delhi to resolve the border standoff situation with China amicably.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj met her Bhutanese counterpart Damcho Dorji on the sidelines of BIMSTEC meet. Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal (BIMSTEC) are members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation .
This was the first ever minister-level meeting between India and Bhutan after the standoff at Doklam. Bhutan has clearly conveyed to China that the construction of road inside Bhutanese territory is a violation of agreements and affects the procedure of marking the boundary between the two countries, according to the Indian Express report.
India has learnt its lesson
Reports say that the army has moved to a no war, no peace state. According to the order issued to all troops in eastern command a week earlier, soldiers were supposed to stay in position in the event of war, according to an NDTV report.
While India suggested that both countries withdraw their troops and initiate diplomatic discussion to solve the issue, China demanded unilateral withdrawal.
This week, defence minister Arun Jaitley said in the Parliament that Indian military was ready for any challenge and that India had already learnt its lesson on being unprepared from the 1962 war.
