‘Road works in India spark border standoff with China’
A HIMALAYAN border standoff between India and China was triggered by India’s construction of roads and air strips in the region as it competes with China’s spreading Belt and Road initiative, Indian observers said on Tuesday (26).
Soldiers from both sides have been camped out in the Galwan Valley in the high-altitude Ladakh region, accusing each other of trespassing over the disputed border, the trigger of a brief but bloody war in 1962.
About 80 to 100 tents have sprung up on the Chinese side and about 60 on the Indian side where soldiers are billeted, Indian officials briefed on the matter in New Delhi and in Leh said.
Both were digging defences and Chinese trucks have been moving equipment into the area, the officials said, raising concerns of a long faceoff.
“China is committed to safeguarding the security of its national territorial sovereignty, as well as safeguarding peace and stability in the China-India border areas,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office said.
“At present, the overall situation in the border areas is stable and controllable. There are sound mechanisms and channels of communication for border-related affairs, and the two sides are capable of properly resolving relevant issues through dialogue and consultation.”
There was no immediate Indian foreign ministry comment. It said last week Chinese troops had hindered regular Indian patrols along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). But interviews with former Indian military officials and diplomats suggest the trigger for the flare-up is India’s construction of roads and air strips.
“Today, with our infrastructure reach slowly extending into areas along the LAC, the Chinese threat perception is raised,” said former Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao.
“Xi Jinping’s China is the proponent of a hard line on all matters of territory, sovereignty. India is no less when it comes to these matters either,” she said.
After years of neglect prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has pushed for improving connectivity and by 2022, 66 key roads along the Chinese border will have been built.
One of these roads is near the Galwan valley that connects to Daulat Beg Oldi air base, which was inaugurated last October.
“The road is very important because it runs parallel to the LAC and is linked at various points with the major supply bases inland,” said Shyam Saran, another former Indian foreign secretary. “It remains within our side of the LAC. It is construction along this new alignment which appears to have been challenged by the Chinese.”
China’s Belt and Road is a string of ports, railways, roads and bridges connecting China to Europe via central and southern Asia and involving Pakistan, China’s close ally and India’s longtime foe.
Last week, the US accused China of employing border clashes with India to try to shift the status quo, and encouraged New Delhi to resist.
Alice Wells, US diplomat for South Asia, drew parallels last Wednesday (20) between the growing skirmishes in the Himalayas and Beijing’s years of increasing assertiveness in the dispute-rife South China Sea.
“For anyone who was under any illusions that Chinese aggression was only rhetorical, I think they need to speak to India,” Wells told the Atlantic Council think tank.
“If you look to the South China Sea, there’s a method here to Chinese operations, and it is that constant aggression, the constant attempt to shift the norms, to shift what is the status quo. “It has to be resisted,” said Wells, who retires from the State Department.
Indian and Chinese troops have engaged in a growing number of brawls and other clashes on their border, including a recent standoff at the Nathu La Pass which connects Sikkim and Chinese-ruled Tibet. (Agencies)