India Withdraws from Russian KavKaz 2020 Military Exercise Involving China and Pakistan; The experts welcome the decision

India had plans to send a 200-strong three-service contingent to participate in a multilateral war game. (Representative Image: IE Photo)

Given the ongoing military confrontation with China along the Royal Line of Control in eastern Ladakh, India has decided to withdraw from the multilateral war game that is scheduled for September 15-26 at the Donguz training grounds in the region. Russian from Orenburg.

China, Pakistan and the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will participate in the strategic exercise of the command post KavKaz 2020.

India had plans to send a 200-strong three-service contingent to participate in a multilateral war game. Earlier this week, representatives of the participating countries had met in Volgograd to discuss the different aspects of the military exercise.

In fact, confirming India’s presence at the meeting earlier this week, the Russian Embassy in New Delhi tweeted about the presence of the Indian military representative along with Belarus, Iran, Myanmar and Pakistan to discuss the preparation of the Command Exercise. and KazKaz 2020 Strategic Control. In addition to China, Pakistan and other member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are scheduled to participate in the strategic command post exercise next week.

Expert opinions

Professor Rajesh Rajagopalan of the JNU School of International Studies, while welcoming India’s decision to withdraw from the military exercise, says: “The question is why India decided to participate in the first place and whether participation was scheduled before the Ladakh raid. for China, why Indian officials waited until now, so late in the day, to decide to cancel. There seems to be great reluctance, at the highest levels of decision-making in New Delhi, to face the reality that China is a relentless adversary, that New Delhi’s policies so far to appease it have failed, and it doesn’t have much sense trying to appease him even more. “

“India continues to be part of several China-sponsored multilateral groups, such as SCO, while continuing to advance necessary steps, such as inviting Australia to Malabar naval exercises and outright banning Huawei from 5G networks in India. So a welcome decision, but still too late, and New Delhi’s obvious reluctance to take such steps sends a message of indecision, ”says Professor Rajagopalan.

Says Lieutenant Colonel Manoj K Channan (Retired): “International military exercises are an extension of military training for partner countries and an important tool of military diplomacy. Since 2012, the Indian armed forces have engaged 23 countries in 93 international military exercises, according to 2017 data. “

“Train together to fight together” is the guiding principle for armies planning to undertake operations against a common enemy or in common geographic locations. All the elements of any military alliance must have perfect interoperability in terms of communications, processes and procedures to achieve the established objectives ”, observes Lt. Cabbage Channan.

In his opinion, “since India and China are currently engaged in a military confrontation along the actual line of control; the Line of Control has been active. It is a well thought out decision not to participate in an International Joint Training Exercise, as there is a possibility that it could lead to an incident that could impede the ongoing military and diplomatic talks with China. Russia, in the given circumstances, understands the implications and will have no relationship with Indo-Russia Military Cooperation. “

“However, it sends a message to China that it needs to restore deployment to the April 2020 positions to restore normalcy in Indo-China relations,” says the Indian Army veteran.

Sharing his views, Professor Rajan Kumar from the School of International Studies says: In an interesting development, India has decided to withdraw from the Kavkaz 2020 military exercise involving the Chinese and Pakistani army. In all likelihood, India wants to signal to Russia that its army cannot participate in a joint exercise with China due to a long confrontation with its army on the Himalayan border. This exercise could have sent the wrong message to your national audience that is pushing for tough action against China.

According to Professor Rajan Kumar, “This decision becomes important because KavKaz 2020 was essentially a Russian military exercise and not a Chinese one. India has always considered its relations with Russia independent of China-Russia relations. Russia has also responded in a similar way. It remained committed to supplying arms to India even during the fighting. “

But maintaining that delicate balance is becoming increasingly difficult for both India and Russia. One only hopes that Russia understands this complexity and takes it in the right spirit. So far there is no indication that Russia has favored China over India. That was the main reason why India had previously agreed to send troops for KavKaz 2020, ”says Professor Kumar.

“In my opinion, it would be obviously wrong to assume that India withdrew due to pressure from the United States or due to some concerns with Russia. The main problem is the presence of armies from China and Pakistan, and probably the fear of COVID infection. The Indian Army participated in the Victory Day parade in the Kremlin a couple of weeks ago. India’s defense minister will travel to Russia to attend the SCO meeting next week. A simultaneous virtual meeting of the BRICS foreign ministers is also scheduled for September 4-5. Therefore, this decision seems more tactical than strategic ”, concludes Professor Kumar.