Losing control Indian UAV crosses over LAC, China claims violation of territorial sovereignty
New Delhi, Dec 7 (IBNS) : India on Thursday clarified that a UAV which was on a regular training mission inside the Indian territory lost control and strayed across the LAC and the Government has maintained all established protocols to inform the Chinese authority.
The statement, made by the Ministry of Defence, was issued in response to the media article by Xinhua News Agency that an Indian drone had invaded the Chinese territory violating the country's territorial sovereignty.
The Defence Ministry statement said : “An Indian UAV which was on a regular training mission inside the Indian territory lost contact with the ground control due to some technical problem and crossed over the LAC in the Sikkim Sector."
" As per standard protocol, the Indian border security personnel immediately alerted their Chinese counterparts to locate the UAV," it said.
The statement added that in response, the Chinese side reverted with the location details of the UAV.
"The exact cause of the incident is under investigation. The matter is being dealt with in accordance with the established protocols through institutional mechanisms to deal with situations along the India- China border areas.”
Earlier in the day, the Chinese state media on Thursday claimed that an Indian drone had "invaded" China's airspace and crashed.
"The Indian move violated China's territorial sovereignty. We strongly express our dissatisfaction and opposition," Xinhua news agency cited the deputy director of the army's western theatre combat bureau, Zhang Shuili, as saying.
The incident comes months after India and China ended one of the worst border standoffs at the Doklam tri-junction.
In August, both the countries pulled back their troops to resolve a tense deadlock over part of the Doklam plateau claimed by both China and Bhutan.
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