Indian Army chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi has said that the border situation with China continues to be far from normal and remains sensitive. 

Speaking at the Chanakya Defence Dialogue, the Indian Army chief said, "...As far as China is concerned, it has been intriguing our minds for quite some time. With China, you have to compete, cooperate, coexist, confront, and contest... So what's the situation today? It's stable, but it's not normal and it's sensitive." 

Gen Upendra Dwivedi reiterated that India wanted the status quo to be restored to what it was before April 2020 -- whether that involves the ground occupation, the buffer zones that have been established, or the planned patrolling arrangements.

He said, "We want the situation to be restored back to what it was before April 2020, whether in terms of the ground occupation situation or the buffer zones which have been created or patroling which have been kind of planned as of now. So until that situation is restored, as far as we are concerned, the situation will remain sensitive and we are fully operationally prepared to face any kind of contingency...Trust has become the biggest casualty..."

Last month, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the focus on resolving the border dispute. The talks took place on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) summit, where both sides agreed to work with "urgency" and "redouble" efforts to achieve complete disengagement at the remaining friction points in eastern Ladakh.

During the meeting, NSA Doval emphasized to Wang that peace and tranquility in the border regions and respect for the LAC are essential for restoring normalcy in bilateral relations.

The relationship between the two countries deteriorated sharply after the violent clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020, the most serious military confrontation between India and China in decades.

India has consistently maintained that bilateral relations cannot return to normal without peace in the border areas. So far, both nations have conducted 21 rounds of Corps Commander-level talks to resolve the standoff.

India continues to urge the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to disengage from the Depsang and Demchok areas. The last round of high-level military talks took place in February.