India stands up to China on disputed frontier
NEW DELHI (Reuters) Earlier this month, the Indian army, stationed on a remote Himalayan plateau, built a small observation hut from where they could watch Chinese soldiers across a disputed border.
The move so irked China s military that it laid a road on territopatagonia better sweater 1 4-zip fleece jacket - women'sry claimed by India and demanded that the tin hut be dismantled. India refused, destroyed a part of the new road and promptly raised troop numbers in the area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making good on election promises of a more robust national security policy, and the fact that around 1,000 soldiers from each side are facing off in Ladakh is evidence even mighty China is not off limits.
No shots have been fired, and a brief border war between the world s two most populous nations was fought 52 years ago.
But Indian military officials spatagonia better sweater testaid the situation in the Chumar area of Ladakh had been unusually tense in recent weeks, highlighting a simmering disapatagonia quilt again vest review1greement between the nuclear armed neighbours that is back on the agenda at the highest level.
Modi, a nationalist who swept to power in May, was unusually forthright when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India in mid September, challenging Xi in private on the question of incursions along their 3,500 km contested frontier.
Afterwards, he told a news conference in the presence of the Chinpatagonia rubicon down reviewese leader that peace and stability on the border were needed for better economic ties Beijing has been pressing for.
P. Stobdan, a former Indian ambassador and a Ladakhi with deep knowledge of the competing claims in the region, sees a shift in New Delhi s thinpatagonia houdini care instructionsking.
The hut has become the bone of contention. The Chinese have drawn a red line. They want it demolished before they will withdraw, he said.
Last year, the Chinese forced the Indians to demolish another hut in Chumar in return for ending a face off.
This time the new government does not seem to be in a mood to budge, Stobdan added.
NO LONGER BUSINESS AS USUAL
Beginning in June, as it prepared to receive Xi, Modi s government set in train a seripatagonia men&s better sweater vestes of bold patagonia quilt again vest reviewactions on the border where Indian officials say China has long been nibbling away at its territory.
It ordpatagonia quilt again vest review2ered faster construction of 72 strategic roads along the border to narrow the gap with China s vastly superior and intricate network of roads and tracks in the mountains.
It has also rebuilpatagonia travel guidet airfields, including a landing strip laid in Daulat Beg Oldi in Ladakh in 1962, the year the two countries fought their short war.
Over the past few months C 130 Hercules planes bought from the United States have been landing at the airfield some 30 km from Depsang, the site of a 21 day standoff last year when People s Liberation Army soldiers set up tents on India s side of the 1962 ceasefire line. Singh, minister for the northeastern statespatagonia clothing store locator, another area whpatagonia quilt again vest review0ere the border is in dispute with China, says it is no longer business as usual on the so called Line of Actual Control (LAC) dividing the two countries.
Incursions from both sides are common along the ceasefire line, because their armies cannot agree where it lies, making a final settlement a distant prospect.
Sometimes (in the past), I think for political reasons or other reasons, we would have said OK, leave it. But that perpetuates the problem, it doesn t solve the problem, said Singh, a former army chief handpicked to beef up civilian and military infrastructure in the northeast.
You keep giving a concession, it only perpetuates the problem. So somewhere up the hierarchy someone has to say let s hold on , he told Reuters in an interview about the latest confrontation with China.
India was humilipatagonia quilt again vest review3ated in the 1962 war and, since then, while it has built up its conventional military and nuclear and missile capabilities, it has been careful to avoid showdowns at the border, which, despite 17 rounds of talks over two decades, remains unsettled.
Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow with the Institute of International Relations at the Shanghai Acpatagonia guide jacket collarademy of Social Sciences, told China s state run Global Times that the Modi government s moves to build up infrastructure and eqpatagonia guide jacket ladiesuipment on the Indian side of the LAC signalled a shift in posture. On August 18, India started building an irrigation canal there as part of the government s rural jobs guarantee programme.
China protested, saying it was located inside its territory.
Then, on September 8, Indian troops erected their observation hut on a hillock in Chumar, one of the areas along the LAC where India has the tactical advantage of height.
Retired Indian army brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal, who has served in high altitude areas, said India s position there overlooks Chinese encampments and a dirt road leading up to the area.
Beijing s response was swift. Within a day, some 500 PLA troops crossed into the area and used cranes and bulldozers to build a 2 km (1.2 mile) road.
