India increases security on border with China after tense standoff

Indian military committed to not let China change border unilaterally, says top minister

India has amassed a record number of its soldiers on a scale never seen before along the border it shares with China, according to the country’s foreign minister S Jaishankar.

The decleration by the senior minister comes weeks after troops on both sides of the border clashed along the disputed frontier in growing signs of tension between the two countries.

“Today we have a deployment of the Indian Army on the China border that we have never had. It is done in order to counter Chinese deployment which was scaled up massively since 2020,” Mr Jaishankar said at a media event.

He also said the Narendra Modi government was determined to not let Beijing alter the existing border demarcation.

“I am saying that it is the obligation of the Indian state and that is the duty and commitment of the Indian military that we will not let any country, and in this case China, change the LAC unilaterally,” he said on Monday.

He also refuted charges from the country’s opposition party Congress that has alleged Mr Modi’s government was in denial about the clear threat and military offensive.

Chinese forces lay claim to several territories along the border with India, from Leh in northern India to the entire northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.

“…China’s threat is clear. The government is trying to hide it, and is ignoring it. But the threat cannot be hidden or ignored,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said last week.

“It is a full offensive preparation. The government of India is sleeping. It does not want to hear this, but they (China) are preparing not for an incursion, but for war,” Mr Gandhi had said.

Replying to the criticism, the foreign minister said: “If we were in denial, then how is the army out there? The army did not go there because Rahul Gandhi asked them to go.”

More than 250 Indian and Chinese troops clashed in Tawang on 9 December, officials said days later after reports leaked details of skirmishes between the soldiers.

The soldiers fought with spiked clubs, monkey fists and stun guns in the Yangtse area and Chinese troops outnumbered their Indian counterparts by four to one.

And just days ago, China’s state-run media released videos of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) test-firing a barrage of long-range rocket artillery near India’s eastern territory. The state media reports claimed one of the PLA’s military commands was camping deep in the Zangnan area, a term that China uses for Arunachal Pradesh that means “South Tibet”.

The tactical drills were carried out by China on a high-altitude plateau region at an altitude of 15,000ft and in temperatures as low as -20C.

High-resolution video of the drills released by the Chinese state showed a weapon system discharging multiple long-range rockets and a PLA PHL-03 multiple rocket launcher shooting down an enemy drone.

“We can launch attacks as we go, which significantly enhances our fire strike efficiency and survivability,” said one of the PLA’s officials.

The Asian giants share a 3,440km-long contentious border that is not properly demarcated, leading to clashes between the soldiers guarding them.

Territorial disputes between the countries had reached a peak in June 2020 when 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese forces were killed following a brutal skirmish.