Army Chief General M M Naravane on Friday embarked on his visit to Ladakh to review the situation at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) there. He is likely to visit some forward posts and interact with the troops.

His tour comes in the backdrop of the ongoing stand-off at three sites at the LAC in Eastern Ladakh for the last one and half years.

On Thursday, he had said here that incidents at the border will continue till India and China come to agreement on the boundary issue. Moreover, India lashed out at China the same day and said large scale deployment of troops by it led to tension at the LAC. India also said it expected China to move towards of early resolution of the issues there.

The Indian side has only made counter deployments in response to China’s “provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter status quo” on the LAC and to fully protect the country’s security interests, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

He was responding to allegations by Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Wednesday that the Indian side was pursuing a “forward policy” and had “illegally crossed the LAC to encroach on China’s territory”.

“It was the amassing of large number of troops by the Chinese side, their provocative behaviour and unilateral attempts to alter status quo in contravention of all our bilateral agreements that resulted in serious disturbance of peace and tranquility along the LAC in eastern Ladakh,” he said.

India has already made its position clear and rejected statements from the Chinese side which “have no basis in facts”, Bagchi said. “It was in response to Chinese actions that our armed forces had to make appropriate counter deployments in these areas to ensure that India’s security interests are fully protected,” he said.

On the Army chief’s visit, sources said he will also take stock of the preparedness of the forward deployments to withstand the coming winter months. Last year, India and China maintained their troops on forward locations at the LAC unlike in the past when both the sides retreated to their bases.

At present, more than 50,000 troops from both the sides are deployed at the LAC since it erupted in May last year. The transgressions from China snowballed into a major brawl in June last year in which 20 Indian army personnel including the commanding officer were killed.  More than 30 Chinese soldiers were also killed in the clash but Beijing is yet to confirm the casualties.