Former Indian army chief, General Mukund Naravane, provided a rare insight into the deadly Galwan Valley clash that erupted on June 15, 2020. In his memoir ‘Four Stars of Destiny,’ Naravane spoke about how Indian troops responded to the aggressive Chinese PLA in eastern Ladakh along the LAC. Naravane said, “Chinese President Xi Jinping will not forget June 16 any time soon as China’s People’s Liberation Army suffered fatal casualties for the first time in over two decades in the fighting.”

New Delhi: Recalling the deadly 2020 Galwan Valley clashes and the India’s befitting response to the Chinese aggression in eastern Ladakh, former Indian Army chief Gen Manoj Mukund Naravane said that Chinese President Xi Jinping will not forget June 16, which also happens to be his birthday, any time soon. Giving a rare insight into the deadly Galwan Valley clashes, the former Army chief in his memoirs ‘Four Stars of Destiny’, said Xi cannot forget the violent face-off as Chinese side suffered “fatal casualties” for the first time in over two decades in the fighting.

Gen Naravane, the 28th Chief of Army Staff, said that China followed “wolf-warrior diplomacy” and “salami-slicing” tactics with smaller neighbours and it took the Indian Army to show to the world that “enough is enough” by challenging the “neighbourhood bully”.

He shared a gripping account of the India-China conflict before and after the deadly Galwan Valley incident. He also provided first-hand account of how India responded to the Chinese aggression and how it acted as a catalyst to step up the Army’s combat readiness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Recalling the death of 20 Indian Army soldiers in the Galwan Valley clashes in June 2020, he said it was one of the saddest days of my entire career. “June 16 is (Chinese President) Xi Jinping’s birthday. This is not a day he will forget any time soon. For the first time in over two decades, the Chinese and the PLA had suffered fatal casualties,” Naravane said in his memoirs.

“They had been following wolf-warrior diplomacy and salami-slicing tactics everywhere with impunity, browbeating smaller neighbours like Nepal and Bhutan, while staking their ever-increasing claims in the South China Sea, without having to pay any costs, especially in terms of human lives. It took India and the Indian Army to show to the world that enough is enough and to challenge the neighbourhood bully,” he added.

Why Is There Tension Between India And China?

Indian Army and China’s PLA have been engaged in an over three-year border standoff since May 2020 after a violent face-off between the soldiers of the two sides along the Pangong Tso Lake in eastern Ladakh. The ties between the two countries further nosedived in June, 2020 after troops of both countries engaged in violent clashes in Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh, which caused several fatalities on both sides.

To defuse the border tensions, India and China have held multiple talks at military and diplomatic levels. The two sides completed disengagement from several areas in eastern Ladakh following extensive talks but are yet to reach a consensus on certain friction points.