Army well prepared, China unlikely to try any misadventure: GOC-in-C

Kolkata: The Indian Army is very well prepared everywhere and China is unlikely to try any misadventure any more, GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, Lt Gen Abhay Krishna said on Monday.

He was referring to the latest incident of a Chinese road-building team breaching into Indian territory at Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh.

Krishna said the Indian Army was there and the Chinese had to retreat leaving behind their equipment.

"We are very well prepared all over. In Tuting, we were there and they had to run away leaving their equipment behind. I don't think they will try any of these misadventures any more," Lt Gen Krishna, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Army Command told newspersons here on the occasion of Army Day.

Krisha said this in reply to a question on the preparedness of the Indian Army following the 74-day Doklam standoff at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction over Chinese road-building efforts inside Bhutanese territory.

Asked whether the Indian Army returned the road construction equipment to the Chinese in Tuting that they had left behind, he said it has been given back to them a few days after.

"We are a very mature nation. So we have returned it. It was returned after few days when they came back and negotiated. We identified to them the line on the ground that from here onwards you cannot get across because the Indian territory starts from there.

"They understood all that and they apologised. They said that it was possibly a mistake on the part of the people on the ground and it won't happen again," the GOC-in-C said.

"We are there, we are prepared for any eventuality. We will do our best and give our best to safeguard the territorial integrity," he asserted.

Krishna said that there has been no change in status quo at Doklam since August 28.

He said that the Army is developing logistics and infrastructure on the strategic Bramhaputra River that flows down from China into Arunachal and then into Assam. Troops have to move fast in case of any eventuality, he said.