https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/worl ... order.html
2 Years After Deadly Fistfights, India and China Pull Back From Border
The two sides, after 16 rounds of talks, made an announcement a week before their leaders will meet in Uzbekistan.
Sameer Yasir, Sept. 9, 2022
SRINAGAR, Kashmir — Their soldiers have fought with fists, rocks and wooden clubs along a disputed frontier high in the Himalayas. Both India and China have said they don’t want a war, but the brawls led them to move thousands of soldiers to inhospitable terrain.
Now, the two nuclear-armed neighbors appear to be moving toward de-escalation after a conflict that endangered regional stability, with officials from both sides agreeing to pull back soldiers from friction points along their disputed border in the Ladakh region.
“The Indian and Chinese troops in the area of Gogra-Hot Springs have begun to disengage in a coordinated and planned way, which is conducive to the peace and tranquillity in the border areas,” India’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday in a statement that the Chinese government also issued in almost identical form.
The border tensions escalated after India unilaterally stripped its part of the disputed Kashmir region of its semiautonomous status in August 2019. China, which also controls a portion of Kashmir, started a troop buildup along its side of the border with Ladakh, which had been part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir before New Delhi split the region. (Pakistan also controls part of Kashmir.)
Beijing called India’s decision to cement its control over Kashmir “illegal and invalid.” India responded by saying it was an internal matter.
Months later, in June 2020, Indian and Chinese soldiers squared off after China’s military moved tens of thousands of troops and artillery to disputed areas, including the strategic Galwan Valley. Fighting between the two sides left 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops dead in the worst border clash between the two nations since 1967.
Not a single shot was fired, following a longstanding code against using firearms, but the soldiers went at each other with fists, some possibly studded with nails or wrapped in barbed wire.
Since a major war in 1962, China and India have largely contained disputes through talks and treaties. Over the decades, there have been flare-ups along the 2,100-mile frontier between the two countries, which is referred to as the Line of Actual Control and is not well defined. But they did not result in a major escalation.
After that changed dramatically two years ago, the two sides looked to ease tensions, holding 16 rounds of commander-level talks, the last one in July.
After the announcement of the pullback in Gogra-Hot Springs, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Friday that “the two sides have agreed to cease forward deployments in this area in a phased, coordinated and verified manner, resulting in the return of the troops of both sides to their respective areas.”
Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular briefing on Friday afternoon: “China firmly safeguards its sovereignty and territorial integrity. This position has not changed in any way. It is very firm.”
She added: “China is committed to resolving differences through dialogue and consultation. This is why we have been in communication with India on border issues through diplomatic and military channels.”
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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-11/ ... /101407062
Why India wants a bigger navy and to build the ships on home soil
Toby Mann, 10/09/2022
In recent years, the focus of India's military strategy has broadened, with a growing emphasis on building up its sea power.
Last week, it bolstered its naval power with its first locally made aircraft carrier — the $3.7 billion INS Vikrant — taking to the seas.
"The security concerns of the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region were ignored in the past but it is our top priority today," Prime Minister Narendra Modi Modi said at the vessel's commissioning ceremony.
However, experts say this goal is being hampered by its lack of a significant domestic arms manufacturing industry.
India's moves to build up its naval power come — not coincidentally — as China is rapidly building up its own.
Historically, the land borders with Pakistan and China have been India's main concern and while they would continue to be significant, things had shifted, Ashok Sharma from the ANU's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre told the ABC.
"In the past, it was all India–Pakistan border, India–China border, so the navy was ignored," he said.
"It is the rise of the Indo-Pacific in strategic significance that has pushed India to invest more and more [in its navy]."
Ian Hall from the Griffith Asia Institute said India remained the dominant sea power in the Indian Ocean, able to project its power into the South China Sea and even the Western Pacific.
But China in the past decade has gone from zero to three aircraft carriers in service, with plans to have a fleet of six in the near future.
In total, it has more than 300 ships and is building another 50 or more.
"China's navy is growing very fast," Dr Hall told the ABC.
"It is unlikely that India will acquire that many ships anytime soon, so China will soon have a numerical advantage, at least."
While the INS Vikrant is one of the world's biggest naval vessels, crewed by 1,600 sailors, it is dwarfed by China's newest carrier.
Launched in June, the Fujian is named for the province opposite Taiwan.
"The Fujian is almost twice the size of the INS Vikrant," Dr Hall said.
According to Dr Hall, the challenge for other countries, including Australia, is to work out how best to combine their fleets to ensure that China is deterred from using all of that power.
"Tensions are already high [in the region]," Dr Hall said.
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Gautam