Deployment along hitherto quiet stretch means relations between the giant neighbors are unlikely to improve soon, experts say.
NEW DELHI—India’s deployment of 10,000 soldiers on the border with China in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand indicates that border relations between the two nuclear-armed giants are deteriorating and are unlikely to improve soon, strategic experts say.
“There’s absolutely no trust; the Indians cannot trust the Chinese,” Namrata Hasija, a research fellow with the New Delhi-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, told The Epoch Times.
“So we have to see this in the larger perspective, that the relationship has not improved. I don’t see any signs of it improving in the near future.”
The 10,000 soldiers are being redeployed from India’s western border with Pakistan. Their placement along 331 miles of the stretch of otherwise dormant but disputed border wasn’t noted by an Indian government spokesperson but by Bloomberg News, which, on March 7, cited an anonymous Indian government source.
Meanwhile, the Chinese regime expressed displeasure while confirming the development, calling the move “counterproductive.”
“India’s move of strengthening military deployment along the border with China is counterproductive to the two countries’ effort to ease the situation at the border and not conducive to safeguarding peace and tranquility of the border areas,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said in response to a question by Bloomberg during a regular news conference in Beijing on March 8.
Retired Indian Maj. Gen. G.G. Dwivedi, a former assistant chief of India’s integrated defense staff and a former defense attaché in China, told The Epoch Times that the disputed border between India and China—called the “Line of Actual Control”—is likely to be “intensely contested” in the future.
That means that both sides will be involved in what he termed “tactical positioning” and “strategic posturing,” he predicted.
By “tactical positioning,” he indicated that India will position itself wherever necessary to effectively counter any offensive action on China’s part, while India and China will regularly checkmate each other on the border. “Strategic posturing” means India will invest in the long-term management of its border affairs with China.
