Prime minister Narendra called a strategy meeting, on 26 May, where national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval, chief of defence staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat and foreign minister S Jaishankar were present. This was the team that had crafted India’s response to the Doklam standoff in 2017 that lasted 73 days.
While India favoured de-escalating the situation on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) through mutual respect and dialogue under the peace and tranquility mechanism in place, the messaging from the [PM’s] meeting mirrored India’s response to the 2017 standoff when Indian troops dug in and stood their ground in the face of a rapid mobilisation by the Chinese side.
While China planned to stare down India into submission with its all-weather ally Pakistan deliberately initiating troop movement in neighbouring Gilgit-Baltistan region, India could not afford to budge from its position as it would amount to acceding to Xi Jinping’s cartographic expansion in the area through military muscle.
Army Chief’s Response
Earlier, army chief Gen MM Naravane had said, on 14 May, that Indian troops were maintaining their “posture” along the border with China while infrastructure development in the frontier areas was on track. He said the incidents in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim involved aggressive behavior by Chinese and Indian troops resulting in minor injuries to personnel from both sides. He said both sides “disengaged” after dialogue and interaction at the local level.
“All such incidents are managed by established mechanisms where-in local formations from both sides resolve issues mutually as per established protocols and strategic guidelines given by the prime minister after the Wuhan and Mamallapuram summits,” Gen Naravane said.
“I can say with confidence that the development of infrastructure capabilities along our northern borders is on track. Our force posture will not suffer due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Foreign Ministry’s Response
On 21 May, India’s ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava commented on the incidents along the LAC – the nearly 2,200 mile unsettled border between China and India. He rejected Beijing’s claim that Indian troops trespassed into Chinese territory, and accused the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of “hindering” patrols by Indian soldiers.
“Any suggestion that Indian troops had undertaken activity across the LAC in the Western Sector or the Sikkim Sector is not accurate. Indian troops are fully familiar with the LAC alignment in the India-China border areas and abide by it scrupulously,” he said.
Srivastava’s remarks followed claims by the China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on May 19 that Indian troops were attempting to “unilaterally change” the status quo at the boundary between them and “blocking” patrolling by Chinese border guards.
The Chinese foreign ministry issued a statement repeating its claims. Their spokesman Zhao Lijian said that China’s position on the border related issues is clear and consistent. It said that Chinese troops “firmly” dealt with what it called the Indian troops “crossover and infringement activities”, while telling the United States not to interfere in the dispute between India and China.
“We urge the Indian side to work together with us, abide by our leadership’s important consensus, comply with the agreements signed, refrain from unilateral actions complicating the situation,” said MFA spokesperson Zhao Lijian.
Zhao said, “Between the two countries, we have good border related mechanism and communication channels. We are capable of resolving the issues properly though dialogue and consultation.”
Srivastava, asked about unilateral actions by China in the South China Sea – the establishment of two new administrative districts for the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands and the naming 80 obscure geographical features over the objections of other claimants, said “(The) South China Sea is a part of (the) global commons and India has an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region.”
“We firmly stand with the freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded lawful commerce in these international waterways, in accordance with international law,” he added.
The statement was consistent with India’s long-standing position on the maritime disputes in Southeast Asia but it was unusual for a government spokesman to make a public statement on the issue in this way. It was sign that India linked the territorial issues it has with China at the LAC with the situation in the South China Sea.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh comments
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on 30 May that India and China were talking to each other at military and diplomatic levels to resolve the Ladakh standoff. Rajnath Singh also underlined that there was no need for the United States to meditate since the two countries already had a mechanism to resolve problems and it had been set in motion.
“The country should be assured that we will not allow India’s dignity to be hurt under any circumstances,” Rajnath Singh said. “India is doing what it needs to do in the circumstances,” said the defence minister, while declining to spell out the measures.
Rajnath Singh admitted on 2 June that “large numbers” of Chinese troops had crossed into India’s side of the LAC. “It is true that Chinese soldiers (are) on the LAC. There are differences in both sides’ perceptions of where the frontier runs. And the Chinese soldiers have arrived there in large numbers,” he said.
Rajnath voiced confidence that the festering confrontation could be resolved through military-to-military talks and diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Beijing, as was achieved during the Doklam confrontation in 2017.
Rajnath emphatically refused to classify China as an enemy. He said that, while India would never hurt the self-respect and sovereignty of any country, “If anyone violates our sovereignty or tries to make India bow its head, this country would respond with force.”
Comments
China’s “unexpected” manoeuvre should not have been unexpected at all. Last August, China’s government vigorously condemned India’s establishment of Ladakh – including the Chinese-held Aksai Chin Plateau – as a new federal territory.
Deception, concealment and surprise often accompany China’s use of force, with Chinese leaders repeatedly claiming that military preemption was a defensive measure. Its latest assault on India – which China claims is the actual aggressor – was taken straight from that script.
Modi’s vision seems to have been clouded by the naive hope that, by appeasing China, he could reset the bilateral relationship and weaken China’s ties with Pakistan, another revisionist state that lays claims to sizable swaths of Indian territory.
The China-Pakistan axis has long generated high security costs for India and raised the specter of a two-front war. That is why some Indian leaders have pursued a “defensive wedge strategy,” in which the status quo power seeks to drive a wedge between two allied revisionist states, so that it can focus its capabilities on the more threatening challenger.
India has in a way warned that if Chinese troops do not behave on the border, India was not obliged to adhere to the Wuhan consensus, and would reiterate its South China Sea position. The Wuhan consensus refers to an informal summit between Chinese General-Secretary Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018. There, the two countries vowed to de-escalate tensions between each other for the sake of better bilateral ties.
China’s recent pressure campaigns in the South China Sea against other claimants are beginning to affect India’s interests in the region. India is principally concerned with its deepening economic and commercial ties to Southeast Asia under the new Act East Policy – especially with Indonesia and Vietnam. China has infringed on exclusive economic zones of both of those nations in the past year.
The Indian government is concerned that the tactics China employs to harass claimants in the South China Sea, using survey vessels, maritime militia and its coastguard, could be repeated in the Indian Ocean, closer to India’s shores. A survey by China near the Andaman Islands which was within India’s exclusive economic zone, in December 2019, is a case in point. India was also watching China’s moves to establish outposts in the Maldives.
