India has rejected the Chinese claim that upgrading its border infrastructure along the 3,488 km Royal Line of Control (LAC) is at the core of ongoing military tensions, saying that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) already it has built and continues to build roads and communication networks. on your side of the border.
“First, the bridges inaugurated by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday are far from LAC and would facilitate the movement and access of civilians in addition to military logistics. Second, China has never raised the issue of improving India’s infrastructure in the ongoing military diplomatic talks. Third, what about the road, bridges, fiber optics, solar heated cabins, and PLA missile deployments near LAC? India is only building infrastructure on its side of LAC and for that we do not need Chinese permission, “said a senior official.
Also read: India building border infrastructure, unfolding the military root cause of the tension: China
According to military commanders, the PLA has drawn fiber optics for secure communication in the disputed Gogra-Hot Springs, used heavy-duty cranes to drop solar-heated containers as accommodation for advance troops on the north shore of Pangong Tso. and has built a hospital in the deep. area to treat altitude sickness and medical problems associated with the rarefied atmosphere.
However, according to China watchers, the reason the PLA is concerned about improving Indian infrastructure in Ladakh is that it could pose a military threat to China’s multi-billion dollar economic corridor Pakistan, or CPEC, for passing Pakistan. through the Khunjerab and Pakistan pass. Busy Kashmir. The Chinese are understood to have relayed their concerns about CPEC to their all-weather ally Pakistan, as India has very strongly opposed Beijing exploiting the ecologically sensitive area of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK.
Also read: China doubled its air bases, air defenses and heliports near LAC in three years
Increasing Indian military capability and capacity in LAC also prevents the PLA from nibbling on East Ladakh in compliance with its 1959 maximalist cartographic line.
The fact is that in 1976, the China Study Group headed by the then Cabinet Secretary had defined 65 patrol points as boundaries for the Indian army in Ladakh LAC. As these patrol points were well within the Indian perception of LAC, the PLA through tremendous border improvements attempted to convert these boundaries into an Indian border. This was pointed out to the UPA regime by former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran when, as chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, he advocated that Indian troops must patrol to at least the limits defined by CSG.
Over the years, China has lobbied India not only at the border, but has also been condescending enough to ask New Delhi to maintain its non-aligned position and stay away from the United States. Beijing, for its part, believes that it belongs to a different league and has prevented India from becoming a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), the UN Security Council and even helped Pakistan try unsuccessfully to get engineers to Indians will be involved in Afghan reconstruction as a global one. terrorists according to resolution 1267 of the United Nations Security Council.
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