Last year the rival nuclear-armed powers came the closest to all-out war
since they fought a month-long border war in 1962. This included a bloody
pitched battle on a mountain ridge in the Galway Valley on the night of june
15/2020, in which 20 indian and four chinese soldiers died.
And an indian military operation in late august that saw thousands of indian
troops seize a series of mountain ridges near Pangong So lake, which forms
part of the current de facto border between india and china.
Indian officials subsequently admitted that this highly provocative action.
Reportedly facilitated by US satellite intelligence, could easily have
resulted in a violent clash with chinese troops spiraling into war.
With its most recent troop deployments, india now has at least 200.000 in
according to some reports, as many as 250.000 troops are rate along its
northern border.
According to a report published by bloomberg last week, the additional
troops have been deployed to at least five bases along with the full breadth
of India's more than three thousand kilometer, two thousand miles border
with China.
Wwenty thousand of them have been deployed to lay in indian held ladakh.
Along with the adjacent chinese held Aksai Chin, eastern Ladakh has been the
focal point of the current flare-up in the sino-indian border dispute.
India is also in the midst of a crash infrastructure building campaign in
its border regions, developing new fortifications, airstrips and road and
rail links to swiftly move troops and supplies.
Late last summer when it took possession of the first of the 35 rafale
fighter jets it has purchased from france. The Indian air force made a point
of immediately deploying them over indian held Ladakh.
India has also established a new 18 fighter jet squadron aimed against china
based in Imbala in the north indian state of Haryana and intends to soon
establish a similar squadron at its hasamara air base in west Bengal to
police the eastern section of its border with China.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the bloomberg report said the indian
military has positioned itself to assume a much more aggressive stance.
Whereas previously, the report explained india's military presence was aimed
at blocking chinese moves. The redeployment will allow indian commanders
more options to attack and seize territory in china if necessary, in a
strategy known as offensive defense.
The report added that indian forces are now more mobile. This is due to
recently acquired us-made helicopters which can ferry soldiers and artillery
including the british-made M-777 Howitzer from himalayan valley to valley.
India's officer corps and its government led by prime minister narendra modi
and his far-right bharatiya janata party have repeatedly boasted that india
is ready to confront china.
Last week defence minister rajnath singh pledged india would give a
befitting reply if provoked. With the world's fourth largest military
budget, ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, india certainly possesses
weapons of mass destruction, meaning that any sino-indian conflict. Even if
it erupts due to miscalculation and is initially confined to their
respective border regions, threatens to rapidly spiral into an unparalleled
catastrophe for the people of asia and the world.
New delhi's aggressive stance in the current border conflict with china is
directly bound up with the support and encouragement it is receiving from
Washington.
