Days after a Pentagon report said China has built a large village in a disputed area along the LAC in the Arunachal Pradesh sector, former Chief Minister Nabam Tuki urged both sides to hold talks to resolve the issue.

Talking to ANI, Tuki said he heard about the Pentagon report but has not visited the site.

“Chinese transgression keeps occurring. A solution should be brought in. For how long will the issue continue? Urge both governments to talk,” he added.

India’s security establishment has downplayed the Pentagon report

This statement from Tuki comes after sources in India’s security establishment downplay the Pentagon report, saying it is in a territory controlled by the Chinese military for nearly six decades.

They also said that the village along the disputed border in the upper Subansiri district has been built by China in an area that was occupied by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) after overrunning an Assam Rifles post in 1959.

“They have, for years, maintained an Army post in the region and the various constructions undertaken by the Chinese have not happened in a short time,” ANI quoted a source as saying.

In its recent report, the US Department of Defence said China built a large 100-home civilian village inside disputed territory between its Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

‘India-China stand-off gave PLA real-world operational and tactical experience’

In the report on military and security developments involving China, the US said that China has continued taking “incremental and tactical” actions to press its claims at the LAC despite its ongoing diplomatic and military dialogues with India to reduce border tensions.

The United States Department of Defence also said that the stand-off between India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since May 2020 gave the PLA “valuable real-world operational and tactical experience”.