Addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, he said there has been a 'complete and total failure' of foreign policy under the Modi government.
The government has also relaxed certain rules to cut delays in military purchase like allowing the three services to procure required weapons and equipment from a single vendor, the sources said.
Singh said a meeting between senior Indian and Chinese military leaders has been scheduled for June 6 even as he asserted that India is not going to back off from its position. Asked about the current situation in sensitive areas in eastern Ladakh, he said Chinese have come up to what they claim is their territory while Indians believed it is theirs.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that the government will not allow India's pride to be hurt under any circumstances even as he said bilateral talks were on at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the row.
The Indian Army will continue to maintain its aggressive posturing in all disputed areas in eastern Ladakh and will not back off till status quo is maintained, sources said.
Asked about the reports of the troops on both sides disengaging and moving back to their previous positions, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing in Beijing that both sides are taking steps to ease the situation along the borders.
The India Army troops rose to the occasion to the challenges along the northern border as likely contingencies and possible options were war-gamed beforehand, Army Chief Gen M M Naravane said on Wednesday, referring to the eastern Ladakh standoff with China.
Amid heightened military activities by the Chinese military opposite eastern Ladakh on its side on the Line of Actual Control, top Indian Army leadership would be briefed about the force's operational preparedness at a high-level meeting to be held here next week.
Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla terms India's relationship with China as "complex".
'The Indian government wakes up after the fact when it can do nothing, or rather lacks the will to prosecute military actions to reverse these adverse PLA-driven developments.'
Once the tanks roll back, a zero-based assessment of future equations with China is necessary. Given the conflict situations that China is imposing on India time and again, the red, amber and green lines of interactions with China need to be laid down and communicated in no uncertain terms, asserts Srikanth Kondapalli, the leading China expert.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the two ministers discussed the outstanding issues related to disengagement from all friction points along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh.
China on Friday concurred with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's observation that an Asian Century cannot happen if India and China don't join hands and emphasised that the two neighbouring countries have 'far more common interests than differences'.
In the next few days, Indian Army will carry out a detailed verification to check actual implementation of the disengagement process, he said. It is learnt that the mutual disengagement in Gogra (patrolling point 17A) is expected to be completed by Thursday.
As part of the mega plan, around 20 bridges, a number of tunnels, airbases and several key roads are being developed in strategically key areas in Arunachal Pradesh to bolster the overall military preparedness, officials said on Monday.
The Army Chief replied in the affirmative when asked by the moderator whether he concurs with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks after the border standoff that the Chinese have not come into control of Indian territory.
After a gap of over two-and-half months, India and China on Sunday held the ninth round of military talks specifically focusing on ways to move forward on the long-negotiated disengagement process in eastern Ladakh as thousands of their troops remained deployed at friction points under freezing conditions.
The focus of the deliberations was on finalising modalities for disengagement of troops in eastern Ladakh.
With the Indian Army having blocked the PLA several kilometres inside India, hundreds of soldiers from both sides remain in a tense face-off.
China routinely objects to Indian leaders' visits to Arunachal Pradesh to buttress its stand.
The actions on the ground would be confirmed and are expected to be followed up soon.
'The Chinese have been moving in step by step; inch by inch for the last 40 years.'
The commanders will also deliberate on the overall situation in Jammu and Kashmir besides delving into issues having national security implications, they said. However, the main focus will be on the situation in eastern Ladakh where Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball face-off in Pangong Tso, Galwan Valley, Demchok and Daulat Beg Oldie, the sources said.
Lt Gen PGK Menon, the commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, popularly known as 'Fire and Fury' Corps, briefed the army chief on various aspects of the situation in eastern Ladakh.
The Army is set to procure a fleet of light tanks for deployment in high-altitude areas in eastern Ladakh under 'Project Zorawar' to bolster its overall firepower and operational prowess to deal with any eventualities.
The Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in a tense border standoff in eastern Ladakh since May 5, 2020, when a violent clash between the two sides erupted in the Pangong lake area.
China has been taking "incremental and tactical actions" to press its claims at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India and has unsuccessfully sought to prevent New Delhi from deepening its relationship with the US during and subsequent to the standoff, the Pentagon has said in a major report on China's military modernisation.
Many of them sustained minor injuries in the clash near Naku La in the Sikkim sector along the Sino-Indo border on Saturday
In a meeting on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe on Thursday, the two foreign ministers exchanged views on the current situation in the region and agreed that military and diplomatic officials of both sides should meet again and discuss resolving the remaining issues at the earliest.
Amid the ongoing border conflict with China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to visit Sikkim on this Dussehra to boost the morale of troops deployed against the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
The army made the comments as part of a statement trashing a media report that said the Chinese military has again crossed the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh at several places and that there has been at least one incident of clash between the two sides.
'India's move has grossly violated China's territorial sovereignty, seriously violated relevant agreements, protocols and important consensus reached between the two countries'
'They also agreed that for the overall development of bilateral relations it was essential to maintain enduring peace and tranquillity in the border areas,' the MEA said in a statement.
The high-level talks came a week after 20 Indian Army personnel were killed in a violent clash between the two sides in Galwan Valley.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will hold its first in-person summit in Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Thursday after two years, shaking off Covid fears and providing a rare opportunity for all its eight heads of state to meet on the sidelines of the event to have face-to-face talks on pressing global and regional issues of common concern.
Singh also assured the opposition that the central government will not keep Parliament or anyone in the dark about developments on the border and will share details at an appropriate time.
'China would want to take a tougher stance against India forming those strategic partnerships and prevent Quad from becoming a military alliance.'
'We have to be equally vigilant in the central sector which is where Barahoti lies and also in the Joshimath area.'
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said India is a peace-loving nation that never resorts to any kind of aggression but is always prepared to give a befitting reply if provoked or threatened.
The dedication of Indian soldiers and veterans towards the country is an 'exemplary example', Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday soon after arriving in Ladakh on a three-day visit aimed at taking stock of India's military preparedness in the region in the face of a prolonged border row with China.
