Sino-Indian
posturing on tables, terrain and high-seas
Anil
Bhat
Tension
was reported to have flared up between India and China on 11 September 2019
after troops from the two countries engaged in a scuffle in eastern Ladakh.
Quite typically, the face-off began when Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
soldiers objecting to Indian Army troops patrolling the Pangong Tso (tso means lake)
in Ladakh. According to the report, the objections by the Chinese side led to
the scuffle which resulted in both sides calling in reinforcements. Two-thirds
of Pangong Tso, 134- kms long and 5 kms at its widest width, is controlled by
China and the remaining by India.
On 13 July 2019, Chinese personnel in civil dress protested along the Line of Actual
Control (LAC) in Ladakh, then part of Jammu
and Kashmir, after some Tibetans hoisted Tibetan flags to celebrate Dalai
Lama’s 84th birthday.
Decades
long frequent confrontations on the 4057 kms long LAC between India and China-
disputed and perception-based, except for a small undisputed stretch in the
middle- had greatly reduced since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President XI
Jinping met for a summit at Wuhan in April 2018, about six months after the
73-day long standoff between the Indian Army and PLA on Bhutan’s Doklam plateau
in 2017.
Clarifying
that the 13 July incident was not an incursion, Amy Chief Gen Bipin Rawat said,
“There are
perceptions of the LAC. They have their own perception and we have our own. We
patrol up to the borders as per our perception…We have a very good working
relationship with the PLA,"
After
05 August this year, when India revoked Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and
Kashmir into two union territories -- Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir, China had conveyed
its objection. The trip of Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, to India for
special representative talks on border issues was reportedly postponed due to
scheduling issues. The reason reported in media is that New Delhi is not happy
about Mr. Wang Yi coming to India after talks in Pakistan and the hyphenation
as such.
The report of tensions related to the Pangong
Tso confrontation, which got resolved, came ahead of an expected but yet
unconfirmed visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to India in October 2019 for
an informal summit.
The very
next day after the Pangong Tso confrontation, the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation’s (SCO) first
conference on Military Medicine for member states was
held in New Delhi on 12 – 13 September
2019. The conference was also the first military co-operation event hosted by India,
under the SCO Defence Co-operation Plan 2019-2020, after it became a SCO Member
State in 2017. Defence Minister Rajnath
Singh inaugurated the conference which was
conducted by the Indian Armed Forces under the aegis of Headquarters Integrated
Defence Staff (HQ IDS), with the aim sharing best practices in the field of
military medicine, build capacities and overcome common challenges. During the
conference, there were deliberations between
military medicine experts of SCO member countries on rendering combat medical
support, humanitarian assistance during disasters and measures to improve
patient safety. The SCO Member States were represented by senior military medical
practitioners. Dialogue partners Nepal and Sri Lanka also sent their
delegations to participate in the Conference. Indian Armed Forces demonstrated the Rapid Action Medical Team and
organised a visit for the delegates to the Army Research and Referral Hospital.
The only
member state which did not send its representative was Pakistan, which became a
member at the same time that India did.
On 16 September 2019, news reports
began coming stating that Indian Navy’s P-8I Poseidon surveillance aircraft
recently detected Chinese amphibious warship Xian-32 in the southern Indian
Ocean region (IOR) earlier in September. Photographs of Landing Paltrorm Dock
Xian 32 were clicked by the P-8I surveillance aircraft before it entered Sri Lankan
waters. Indian Navy was quoted saying, “The P-8I tracked another Chinese
frigate that is part of its anti-piracy escort task force deployed in Gulf of
Aden to provide security to Chinese merchant vessels from Somali sea pirates.”
In late August/early September 2019,
Indian intelligence agencies reportedly warned that China was allegedly spying
on Indian Naval bases in the Indian Ocean through its advanced surveillance
ship in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. One of these reports stated that China
had regularly been sending its surveillance ships in the IOR to gather more
details about the Indian naval bases and the warships deployed in the area by one
of China’s latest intelligence-gathering ships - Dongdiao class ship
Tianwangxing. The Chinese spy ship reportedly entered India's Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ) and stayed there for a few days and was spotted very close
to the eastern sea border near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Also People's
Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ship Tianwangxing intruded into the EEZ and
remained close to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the east coast of India
for nearly two weeks. Tianwangxing of Type 815G Class is China’s most modern of
electronic surveillance ships. As per news reports of 16 September 2019, at
least seven Chinese ships have been detected in the IOR. The presence of Chinese surveillance vessels
in the IOR is a cause of concern for the Indian security establishments.
In October 2019, Indian Army’s newly
raised mountain strike corps will hold its maiden exercise, ‘HimVijay’, at over
10,000 feet in Arunachal Pradesh, in which over 15,000 soldiers backed by
tanks, medium artillery, helicopters and transport aircraft will participate.
Planned to be conducted away from the LAC with China, it will coincide with the
expected visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping also in October.
The exercise assumes greater
significance because Indian Army will for the first time see in action its
integrated battle groups (IBGs), the idea of which is reported to have been
conceived by Gen Bipin Rawat. The news report cited sources stating that three
mountain IBGs have been formed from a Mountain Division, which is part of the
newly raised Mountain Strike Corps.
An IBG, which will be a little
smaller than a division, will integrate the existing elements of infantry, tank
regiments, artillery, engineers and signals. It will comprise six battalions of
these elements and will be directly under a Corps. Once the IBGs are formed,
the formations will be converted into leaner and more efficient fighting units
with the ability to strike deeper and faster against enemy targets, the sources
said.
The aircraft this exercise will include
Chinook helicopters inducted into the Indian Air Force earlier this year, its latest transport aircraft, the C-17 and C-130J
Super Hercules as well as the old AN-32 to airlift the army troops from West
Bengal and deploy them close to the ‘war zone’ in Arunachal Pradesh. The Army’s M777 ultra-light howitzers, inducted about a year
ago and ideal for use in mountainous terrain will also feature in the exercise.
The exercise is expected to be widely
watched keenly, as the IBGs are reported to replicated in future operations in
the theatres of the Western, Northern and Eastern Commands.
Mr. Sun Weidong, the new
Chinese envoy to India, reportedly admitted during a public address in New
Delhi that for neighbours and major countries, differences are hard to avoid.
“The key is to properly handle them. We should look at issues with rationality,
put them in the bigger picture, reduce differences through consultation, settle
disputes through dialogue, promote peace through development, and enhance
mutual trust through cooperation. Only by this way can we lead the trend of our
times and meet people’s expectations”, he suggested.
Sharing his views with this writer, Dr. Swaran Singh, Professor, School
of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, commented
that much of the Sino-Indian relationship is about posturing, but keeping the ties
going relatively smoothly. If posturing is how some diplomatic-military
relationships are to be managed, then the one consolation is that the Indian
establishments spine is becoming straighter.
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