Editorial: Yet another incursion

The December 9 intrusion near Yangtse in Tawang sector has raised the diplomatic temperature ahead of the next round of talks to defuse the military standoff in Ladakh.

Hyderabad: The recent border clash in the Tawang region of Arunachal Pradesh reflects the growing belligerence by China which has been repeatedly shifting the goal posts and flexing muscles as part of a deliberate strategy to demonstrate its regional hegemony. The unresolved border friction does not augur well for both countries and adversely affects the bilateral trade relations. The December 9 intrusion near Yangtse in Tawang sector, the first since the July 2020 clashes at Ladakh’s Galwan Valley, has raised the diplomatic temperature ahead of the next round of talks to defuse the military standoff in Ladakh. Unlike the Galwan clashes, where 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese troops died, there were, fortunately, no casualties in the latest encounter. The Indian soldiers have successfully thwarted the attempt by Chinese forces to unilaterally change the status quo. The high level of preparedness of the Indian forces can be gauged from reports that the IAF scrambled its fighter aircraft deployed in the region after Chinese drones were spotted moving aggressively towards Indian positions along the LAC in recent days. Yangtse is a strategic area that the Chinese have eyed since the 1986 standoff with Indian troops. The latest incursion indicates that the Chinese are prepared not to localise the standoff to Ladakh alone, but to stretch it to all sensitive points on the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Ahead of the next round of Ladakh talks at the corps commander level, they are clearly trying to create fresh pressure points, both to keep the Indian Army on tenterhooks and also to create some bargaining chips.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) appears to be keen to drive home the message that they can intrude at will anywhere along the LAC, despite the high-level all-weather deployment of the Indian Army. The latest misadventure could also be linked to China’s angst over the ongoing Indo-US joint military exercise in Uttarakhand, about 100 km from the LAC. Beijing has furiously protested against this exercise, dubbing it as “third-country interference in Sino-Indian relations.” China does not want America to interfere in its relationship with India, but it is not doing enough itself to defuse tensions on the ground. Ironically, Chinese provocations are drawing India further closer to America. New Delhi needs to take these misadventures seriously not only in terms of national security concerns but also in view of its overdependence on Chinese imports. China is India’s second largest trading partner, after the US, with a huge trade deficit of $73.71 billion. India’s assertion that resolving the boundary dispute is a prerequisite for normalisation of bilateral ties is not matched by the constant growth in India-China trade, which had peaked at $115.83 billion in 2021-22. The ‘Make in India’ initiative needs a big push to put the country on a firm footing to resist Chinese machinations.

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