NEW DELHI: As the military standoff between India and China drags on along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the talks between the two sides are going on well and indicated hope for a resolution of the lingering row.
Singh also said that India has been developing infrastructure along the frontier with China at a rapid speed, asserting that the country’s borders will remain safe.
“The talks are going on well,” he said declining to elaborate further considering the sensitive nature of the dialogue process.
Asked whether he was hopeful of a positive outcome and an end to the nearly four-year face-off between the two militaries, Singh shot back: “If there was no hope, then why to have talks.”
“They (the Chinese side) also have hope and that is why holding the talks,” he said.
He said India will never give up its claim on Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) but it won’t have to capture it with force because its people, on their own, would want to be part of India after seeing the development in Kashmir, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said.
Singh asserted that the ground situation has improved significantly in Jammu and Kashmir and that a time will come when AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act) will no longer be required in the Union Territory.
The defence minister, however, said the matter is under the domain of the Union Home Ministry and it will take appropriate decisions. He said elections will also be held there definitely, but wouldn’t give a timeline.
“I think India will not have to do anything. The way the ground situation has changed in Jammu and Kashmir, the way the region is witnessing economic progress and the way peace has returned there, I think demands will emerge from people of PoK that they should merge with India,” he said.
“We will not have to use force to take PoK as people would say that we must be merged with India. Such demands are now coming,” he said. The defence minister asserted that “PoK was, is, and will remain ours”.
Ladakh row: DM hopeful of resolution added by Agencies on
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