India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, during his recent trip to Manila, said that India firmly supported the Philippines in upholding its national sovereignty and wanted to explore new areas of cooperation, including in defence, and New Delhi’s backing of Manila came as the Philippines and China are engaged in an intense tussle over the disputed maritime boundaries in the resource-rich South China Sea.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) didn’t stop at that. Jaishankar emphasised the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Naturally, this didn’t go well with China and it protested on the expected lines. But India doesn’t care less as it is done with Chinese bullying. India is also set to export the supersonic BrahMos missile systems to the Philippines, marking its largest-ever defence contract with a foreign nation. And recent media reports suggest that even Vietnam was looking to buy BrahMos missiles from India, in a deal which could be worth as much as $625 million. Vietnam too is locked in a bitter territorial dispute with China, just like its other neighbours in the South East Asia.
Post Galwan conflict with Chinese forces in 2020, India has been aggressively readying itself to counter the Dragon diplomatically and militarily, backed with infrastructure built-up along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). India has been increasing its deployment against China in all three sectors— the northern, central and eastern sectors. More recently, the Indian government has freed a strong contingent of 10,000 soldiers—previously deployed at its western border—to strengthen its disputed border with China amid soured relations with Beijing after the June 2020 standoff between the two countries at the Galwan area of Eastern Ladakh.
Prior deployment by India directed towards China included 14 Corps based in Leh, 17 Corps and 33 Corps in Sikkim, and 3 Corps and 4 Corps in the eastern sector. Additions and changes have been made to this, such as a proposed reorganising of the 14 Division, earmarked for fighting against Pakistan in the plains, into a mountain division for deployment in Himachal and Uttarakhand against China. India’s paramilitary, such as the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), is deployed closer to the border at most locations, with the army holding line some kilometers behind them.
India is also deploying special weapon systems like the indigenously built Light Combat Helicopter, Prachand.
With an eye on Ladakh, DRDO has begun testing the indigenous light tank, Zorawar, to counter China’s ZTQ-15 light tanks, which weigh just 33-tonnes (36 tonnes with additional slap-on armour), and move through the 14,000-foot-high valleys with far greater ease. All this will ensure that India is not caught napping, when China gets adventurous once again, unlike in the past.
Although the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is numerically far stronger than India, but its soldiers and equipment have not been tested in the battlefield, so there is a big question mark on their performance during a war. Moreover, China at present has territorial dispute with at least five neighbouring countries, apart from India. This means deployment of resources on LAC will be limited.
Economically also, India is outperforming China, with many multinational companies, like Apple, shifting their manufacturing base to India. Since long, China has been trying to surround India by investing in its neighbouring countries and then putting them in a debt trap. It has tried it with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and of course Pakistan. India sensed the opportunity and bailed out Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They have come back to India’s fold. So, India is gradually overturning the presence of China through ‘String of Pearls’ and creating its own by engaging the latter’s neighbours.
China needs to be told about our might in the language it understands. But at the same time, India should keep its diplomatic relations going with China and hope to get back our lost territory without any conflict. War is not a solution to any problem.
However, if push comes to shove, we will have to be well prepared to give the Chinese a bloody nose.
