Tuting issue with China is resolved: General Bipin Rawat

New Delhi: Another Doklam-type standoff was averted in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tuting area with India and China having resolved their differences after a Border Personnel Meeting was held between the two sides two days ago, Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Monday.

The incident came to light after a Chinese team was recently found building roads about one km inside Indian territory near Tuting.

“The Tuting incident has been resolved,” Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat told reporters on the sidelines of an event that focused on military design. The incident had threatened to snowball into another Doklam type standoff between the two Asian giants after two local hunters reported the Chinese road building activity in a remote and mountainous place about 40 km away from Bishing, the last habitation point towards the Indo-Sino border located about 50 km from Tuting which is the last sub-division before the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

An Indian Army-ITBP team confirmed the development on 28 December, 2017, when they observed few civilians undertaking track alignment activity.

A source had told this newspaper on Wednesday that the Chinese civilians returned to their own side of the border on the same day when asked to do so by the Indian troops leaving behind some civil construction equipment including two excavators.

General Rawat also said that there was a major reduction of Chinese troops in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.