NEW DELHI, Mar 7: The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday underlined India’s readiness for war in the face of multiple challenges along the country’s border.
Speaking at a Defence Summit organised by a media house, Mr Singh said, “We have to be ready for war at all times… even in peacetime. We have to be ready.” “Whether from land, air, or sea… if anyone attacks India, our forces will respond strongly. We have never attacked any country nor have we occupied even an inch of anyone’s land. But, if anyone attacks us, we are in position to give a befitting reply,” he said at the event.
Mr Singh’s comments have been seen as a not-so-veiled reference to continuing tension with China in Kashmir and Ladakh, as well as the northeast. Indian and Chinese troops have been locked in military stand-off for nearly four years – following confrontations at friction points in eastern Ladakh.
The 20th round of Corps Commander-level talks between Delhi and Beijing was held in October, at Chushul as part of ongoing efforts for disengagement and de-escalation to resolve the stand-off. Tensions, however, continue to remain.
In Tokyo, taking a dig at China, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Beijing has not observed longstanding written agreements with India and blamed it for the bloodshed at the borders in 2020, the first in more than four decades.
Speaking at the inaugural Raisina Roundtable in Tokyo, an event by the think tank, Mr Jaishankar also spoke about how he expected a change in Russia’s direction towards the rest of the world and it may likely want multiple options in Asia.
On a two-day trip to Japan, Mr Jaishankar elaborated on the changing world order, saying, “There is a reality of a very big power shift in the Indo-Pacific. When there are very big shifts in capabilities and influence and presumably ambitions, then there are all the accompanying ambitions and strategic consequences.”
Last week Mr Jaishankar, speaking at a think-tank event in Delhi, called on Beijing to adhere to border management pacts to ensure peace between the nations. Rajnath Singh’s assertive comments echoed those made in January, when he said the world had witnessed India’s rise as a “key global economic and strategic power.” Mr Singh acknowledged the India-China relationship “is currently under strain,” but insisted Delhi wants good ties with all.
“Now, it’s not an issue whether you like it or you don’t like it. There’s a reality out there, you have to deal with that reality,” he said and added, “Ideally, we would assume that everybody would say, okay, things are changing, but let’s keep it as stable as we can,” Mr Jaishankar said.
“Unfortunately, that’s not what we have seen in the last decade of our own experience in the case of China, for example, is between 1975 to 2020, which is really 45 years, there was no bloodshed on the border, and in 2020, that changed,” he said.
He added, “We disagreed on many things. When a country doesn’t observe written agreements with a neighbour. I think you have cause for concern here. It raises a question mark about the stability of the relationship and frankly, about the intentions.”
The eastern Ladakh border standoff erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area. The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades.
India has been maintaining that its ties with China cannot be normal unless there is peace in the border areas. “We see it in conflict in Europe, in disregard for international law in Asia, and in the ongoing developments in the Middle East and often in the weaponisation of the normal,” he said earlier in his prepared address.
“Longstanding agreements are not being necessarily observed, raising question marks about the stability of the environment in which we all operate,” he said, referring to the 1993 Border Peace and Tranquillity Agreement (BPTA) and the 1996 agreement on “Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field Along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
