NEW DELHI: Following China’s repeated rejection of India’s efforts to defuse the two major ongoing troop standoffs at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh during the most recent round of military talks, Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane referred to Beijing as a “bully” against whom Indian forces were standing firm all along the frontier on Wednesday.
Aramane also thanked Washington for “very quickly” providing “intelligence and situational awareness which US equipment and the US government could help us with” following the military conflict with China that broke out in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Aramane was speaking at the second INDUS-X defense summit with US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral John C. Aquilino here.
“We found it to be very helpful,” he said.
According to recent assessments, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is still forward-deploying between 50,000 and 60,000 soldiers equipped with heavy weapons in the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control’s western (Ladakh), central (Uttarakhand, Himachal), and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal) sectors, sources told TOI.
Similar “mirror military deployments” are made by India as well, as shown by Aramane’s comments.
China rejects India’s plea to remove its troops
India and China are engaged in a full-scale confrontation on almost every front. We are positioned at every mountain pass so that we are prepared for any situation. We must also be prepared wherever there is a road. In other words, we are firmly resisting a bully,” he said.
“And we anticipate that our buddy US will stand by us in the event that we need their assistance. We have to accomplish it jointly because it is important for us. We are very grateful for our friends’ unwavering support and commitment to us at this difficult time. It will be crucial for us to have a strong will to stand by one another in the face of a shared peril,” he said.
Aramane made her unusually forceful remarks on February 19, following the 21st round of corps commander-level dialogue at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point. The dialogue resulted in “no breakthrough” in resolving the nearly four-year-old military confrontation in eastern Ladakh, which has led to heightened tensions and intermittent skirmishes all along the LAC.
“In the military talks being held after a gap of over four months, China did not agree to India’s demand for troop disengagement at Depsang Plains and the Charding Ninglung Nallah (CNN) track junction at Demchok as a pre-condition to de-escalation,” a government source said.
“Complete disengagement in the remaining areas” along the Ladakh-Arunachal Pradesh border is “an essential basis for restoration of peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” according to a short statement from the MEA.
However, during the talks led by the chief of the South Xinjiang Military District and 14 Corps commander Lt-General Rashim Bali, the two nations agreed, as they had in previous rounds, to “maintain peace and tranquillity on the ground in the interim” and to “maintain communication on the way ahead through the relevant military and diplomatic mechanisms”.
Aramane said at the defense conference that India and the US were cooperating at several levels in the Indo-Pacific, given the context of China’s hostile and expansionist behavior across the area, including the South and East China Seas and the land boundaries with India.
We are living at a critical juncture in the Indo-Pacific region’s history. The Indo-Pacific region is at the intersection of global trade, geopolitics, and security due to its wide range of seas and strategically important waterways, the speaker said.
“In navigating the complex dynamics of this region, India and the US find themselves as key stakeholders, bound by shared values and common interests,” he said.
Aramane said that India was increasingly looking to the US for cutting-edge defense technology and equipment, underscoring the mutual strategic convergence. “The US, in turn, sees India as a key partner in its Indo-Pacific strategy, leveraging India’s growing defence capabilities,” he said.