Any military escalation between China and India could have serious repercussions. Both of them are nuclear-armed. Now, the US Military is set to conduct drills near the disputed India China border.
The US will partake in a combined military drill with India that will take place fewer than 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the South Asian country’s contentious border with China.
According to a senior Indian Army officer with information about the situation, the joint military exercises will take place in mid-October at an altitude of 10,000 feet in Auli, Uttarakhand, and would focus on high-altitude combat training.
The contentious boundary between India and China is generally delineated by the Line of Actual Control (LAC), which is around 95 kilometers from Auli.
The exercises are part of the yearly joint exercise “Yudh Abhyas” also known as “War Practice” which is in its 18th year.
Since a brutal encounter between their soldiers in the Himalayas in June 2020 that resulted in at least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers dying, the relations between India and China have been tense.
China’s recent construction of a bridge over the bordering Pangong Tso lake, which the Indian government has condemned as a “illegal occupation.” has exacerbated tensions.
China’s military build-up along the contentious border has been dubbed “alarming.” by US Army Pacific Commanding General Charles Flynn, who visited India this year.
A US Department of Defense official told CNN when questioned about the joint drills that the alliance with India was “one of the most important elements of our shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
“One important element of this broader effort includes exercises and training events and Yudh Abhyas is one such annual bilateral exercise designed to improve interoperability and improve our respective capacities to address a range of regional security challenges,” the spokesperson said.
Line of Actual Control
The 1962 Sino-Indian border war, which was itself brought on by long-standing border disputes, gave rise to the Line of Actual Control, the ill-defined de facto frontier between China and India.
Its exact location might be hazy, and China and India continue to disagree over where one nation stops and the other begins.
Any military escalation between China and India could have serious repercussions. Both of them are nuclear-armed.
Boundary hostilities amongst the two nations rose as soldiers clashed with fists, stones, and nail-studded bamboo poles in a brutal brawl in June 2020 in the Galwan Valley, near Aksai Chin, a territory held by China but contested by both countries.
Though tensions have since subsided, both sides retain a significant force presence in the border area, increasing the possibility of miscalculation in the case of sudden and unexpected conflicts.