China-India border dispute: defence chief says Beijing is New Delhi’s ‘biggest security threat’

Name: India ramps up defences on Himalayan border after deadly clashes with China
Uploaded: 2021-11-12T07:52:36.000Z
Duration: 3 min 44 s
Description: India ramps up defences on Himalayan border after deadly clashes with China

General Bipin Rawat said growing ‘suspicion’ is coming in the way of resolving the border row between the nuclear-armed neighbours

He added India is ‘prepared for any misadventure along the Himalayan frontier and in the sea’

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India has deployed thousands of troops along its disputed Himalayan border with China. Photo: AFP

Bloomberg

Published: 3:52pm, 12 Nov 2021Updated: 3:53pm, 12 Nov 2021

China has become India’s biggest security threat and the tens of thousands of troops and weaponry that New Delhi rushed to secure its disputed Himalayan border last year will not be able to return to base for a long time, defence chief General Bipin Rawat said.

A lack of “trust” and growing “suspicion” is coming in the way of resolving the border dispute between the nuclear-armed neighbours, Rawat said late Thursday.

Last month, the 13th round of border talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders ended in a stalemate as both sides couldn’t agree on how to pull back from the border.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has shifted its strategic focus from long-time rival Pakistan after the deadliest India-China fighting in four decades erupted last summer.

Twenty Indians and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed in hand-to-hand combat in a clash along the poorly demarcated 3,488-kilometre border last June.

Since then, Beijing and New Delhi have been adding to infrastructure, troops and military hardware along the disputed Himalayan frontier, Rawat said. “India is prepared for any misadventure along the border and in the sea,” he added.

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India ramps up defences on Himalayan border after deadly clashes with China

His comments coincided with India’s foreign ministry’s criticism of new Chinese construction in areas that both sides claim. Rawat said the Chinese are building villages along the Line of Actual Control, as the disputed but de facto boundary between the two countries is known.