These bridges are designed to facilitate the movement of heavy civil and military traffic, an official said.
New Delhi:
India has opened dozens of new bridges, many of them with all-weather access, along its de facto border with China, in a move that could spark a new round of tensions.
Eight of the bridges are in Ladakh province, where India and China have each amassed more than 50,000 troops, tanks, missiles and put fighters on alert, while eight are in Arunachal Pradesh, in the remote northeast of the country. a region claimed by China, where the border dispute is most acute, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Four others are in the Himalayan region, which witnessed a months-long military clash in 2017 over the Doklam plateau, claimed by China and India’s ally Bhutan.
Built to allow faster movement of troops, artillery, tanks, and even missiles closer to the border, news of the bridges came as senior military and diplomatic officials met for the seventh time Monday to restore calm after talks. previous ones ended in a stalemate.
“These bridges are designed to facilitate the movement of heavy civil and military traffic in the border areas,” said Lt. Gen. Harpal Singh of the Border Roads Organization, which builds all infrastructure along the borders.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has expanded its infrastructure along the border. It has completed 74 strategic highways along the eastern border, with plans to finish 20 more by next year. It will cut the time it takes to move the material in half and help 431 villages that are located throughout the region during the COVID-19 outbreak.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, called the development of the border infrastructure “the root cause of tension between the two sides.”
“We urge the Indian side to seriously implement our consensus and refrain from actions that may aggravate the situation,” Zhao said, adding that India should “take concrete steps to safeguard peace and tranquility along the border.”
Indian and Chinese troops have been deployed within rifle range along the Himalayan border in Ladakh province since May in the worst military crisis among neighbors since the 1962 war. Shots have been fired and up to 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in an ugly clash along the disputed border on June 15.
At the beginning of the confrontation, India amended its law on foreign investment to make it mandatory for companies from countries that share a land border to seek government approval to acquire local businesses and has tightened visa rules for Chinese citizens.
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