Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
With the world obsessing over every increasingly childish outburst in the daily back and forth between Trump and Kim Jong-Un, another conflict which has so far gone largely unnoticed by the global media continues to grow on the border between India and China.
As reported yesterday, in the most recent escalation between the two nuclear powers, the Indian Army ordered the evacuation of a village close to the Doklam India-Bhutan-China tri-junction amid to a standoff between Indian and Chinese soldiers. This takes place just days after China turned the war threat amplifier up to ’11’ by threatening India (in an article published a Chinese state-controlled newspaper) that it could conduct a “small-scale military operation” to expel Indian troops from a contested region in the Himalayas.
For those who need a reminder, the latest geopolitical standoff between India and China started in June, after Chinese troops started building a road on a remote plateau which is disputed by China and Bhutan. Indian troops countered by moving to the flashpoint zone to halt the work, with China accusing them of violating its territorial sovereignty and calling for their immediate withdrawal.
After adding a large number of troops to the region, China then sharply escalated when a Chinese Ministry of Defense warned explicitly that Indian troops must leave the contested area if they do not want war.
Then, earlier this week, tensions escalated further when as the Independent reported, the Chinese state-owned Global Times quoted a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences who said China is preparing to initiate a “limited war” to push Indian soldiers out of the area.
To this, the Indian response was the abovementioned forced evacuation of a few hundred villagers living in Nathang, who were asked to vacate their houses immediately, according to News18. Nathang is 35 km from the site of the two-month old standoff.
Which brings us to today, and the latest report by PTI India, according to which in a strategically key move, India has poured in more troops along the entire stretch of its border with China in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in the face of heightened rhetoric by Beijing over the Dokalam standoff, according to senior government officials on Friday.
Furthermore, the “caution level” among the troops has also been raised, the officials told PTI.
The Indian officials said that the decision to increase the deployment along the nearly 1,400-km Sino-India border from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh was taken after carrying out a detailed analysis of the situation and considering China’s aggressive posturing against India on Dokalam.
“The troop level along the border with China in the Sikkim and Arunachal sectors has been increased,” said the officials on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. The Army’s Sukna-based 33 Corps as well as 3 and 4 corps based in Arunachal and Assam are tasked to protect the sensitive Sino-India border in the eastern theatre.
However, the officials declined to give any figure or percentage of increased deployment, saying they cannot disclose “operational details.”
According to defence experts, roughly 45,000 troops including personnel having completed the weather acclimatisation process are normally kept ready along the border at any given time, but not all are necessarily deployed. The soldiers, deployed over 9,000 feet, have to go through a 14-day-long acclimatisation process.
The officials, however, said there is no enhancement of troops at the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction in Dokalam where around 350 army personnel are holding on to their position for nearly eight weeks after stopping Chinese troops from constructing a road on June 16.
Bhutan and China have competing claims over Dokalam, and are negotiating a resolution. Meanwhile, China has been ramping up bellicose rhetoric against India over the last few week – in many aspect echoing either side in the US-North Korea conflict – demanding immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Dokalam. Both the Chinese and Indian state medias have carried a barrage of critical articles on the Dokalam stand-off slamming India.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj recently said both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, and favoured a peaceful resolution of the border standoff. India also conveyed to the Chinese government that the road construction would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications for it.
So far, not only has neither side pulled back troops, but as today’s latest news of increasing deployment suggests, a full blown conflict, one whose consequences could be far more devastating than a US military intervention in North Korea, looks increasingly likely with every passing day.
My best guess is that this disrespect of Chinese borders by India is U.S. endorsed to keep China occupied on as many fronts as possible during this Korean crisis.
best do not guess
You best not interject since you are afraid to guess.
pfff
But one thing is very clear ,boss.China can and will occupy any land of its choice in Indian territory come what may,when and wherever it desires,even if they have to fight simultaneously in south China sea,Pacific or anywhere .Indians are toooo passive and cowards to defend,what all they can do is to look for US patronage.For Indians to stand Chinese resilience is a mission impossible
interesting article for all commentators, who dream about BRICS which defeats NATO ;)
NATO is dying a slow death it could be ended by the EU deciding to put more money into creating an EU army since it stands at around 100 billion Euros so far. NATO has lost it’s original mandate which has become obvious for too long, there are those whose ambitions seem to be in conflict with the original agreements. NATO no longer represents it’s origins but the limited views of those whose ambitions have become the controlling entity and the enemy everyone feared would happen to result of unchecked balances.
NATO is dying
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
‘EU army’ what a joke!!!
The other big joke is the US army, it’s even funnier.
Of course, but not as big as the Admiral Kuznetsov which is the only ship it’s said can be seen from the moon and it uses airplanes as torpedos.
The US has just built huge Aircraft carriers with a 100 year span on them now who is even the bigger joke, Kuznetskov is old and Russia had only 2 aircraft carriers and the US has how many? Mad because Russia builds faster aircraft 4-6 generations ahead of NATO fighters and the Su 25 frogfoot is by far the most capable as a heavy ground strike fighter currently today. The NATO jets are still outdated the use uses generation F in the F-18 line , Canada flies H generation fighters, Australia F as do many nations continue to do so. These are flying torpedoes and fast became obsolete when produced.
You are trying too hard.
Nah ,just pointed out the obvious deficiencies can recite other major issues, but that gets redundant in saying the US and it’s allies lag behind in up to date equipment.
Ok you right USA aircraft carrier is shit, Russia rules the sky, but most of all they have the Admiral ;)
They have the largest country in the world why would one need so many bases , since they could launch an attack east or west or from the north. The Russians are building 2 new aircraft carriers both larger than the US has, still the US has way too many and they are becoming obsolete due to current missile technology a Zirchon M can pulverize many without a warhead at the speed of 4600 mph the destruction is guaranteed.
Indeed USA and its allies are retarded, they should’ve ask you before spending billions on aircrafts that will be pulverized by Russia.
Think they should have seen carrier warfare as an end when Hollywood starting making movies about them , they did that for the cavalry. They use them as flotillas to move airpower around, that is another dinosaur that ended quietly since it cant win you the ground war. Everything plays a supporting role to the grunt on the ground and not the other way around.
Exactly, Pentagon inspires its strategy from Hollywood movies, US Navy is a joke compared with Russian Navy, any pro-Russia commenter can see it. Admiral Kuznetsov with its black smoke will take down all US planes and will sink the US navy launching MIGs and SU’s under water.
Judging by the reactions it’s just one of those things which people don’t like to hear, but BRICS and SCO do *not* have their act together. I’m not ready to assign blame to either China or India, but shouldn’t this petty dispute have been resolved *before* letting India join the SCO. And Pakistan has always been an “ally from hell” for the US, why would SCO think they become stronger by letting the Pakis join their club as well.
Admittedly things are easier for the West because there is a single Emperor, even though there was some initial grumbling when Trump ascended to the Dark Throne. China, India, Iran, and even Syria have to work out their differences by consulting among themselves.
China is the biggest mouthed country in the world, Vietnam alone got tens of treats with war in the XX century, the Freedom of Navigation Patrols get smaller protests every time they are conducted, probably they feel things start to get serious and have a shortage on Pampers.
Well I thought that honor belonged to the US and you are saying the US has relinquished that title, I think not you, uneducated Buffoon!
Take example from the lulz warrior and post something interesting.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da1c97b366eb64ed7eafe76c261bd1eb44a15d8801320c87639fb358d63b3d4f.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f6ab395ad82b0c7e1a9936027ffda39f5623c9f977a73f33ea4e4fb0350d8db2.jpg
> Pajeets complaining about others being loudmouthed.
Nice one, show me more lulz!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac5d5cb2b92acf9bdd560cbebc663aefc710f5953783837f741c8526fddd490b.jpg
Following orders of USA. India is making a big mistake by becoming little by little to another USA puppet.
Becoming another US puppet? They have been under deep state control ever since the English invasion of India.
They became under their own deep state influence long after the British left , they still had some of the worst human rights violations back then. They became a large nation with their own global and territorial ambitions. They have always had running disputes in regard to their northern borders and allowed their people to spread outside those boundaries for centuries. India like Israel developed it’s Nuclear programs with Canadian help as did Pakistan. Blame Canada for bringing Nuclear capabilities to the unstable regions of the world.
indians are oldest serviving indegenious civilization of the very same land. historically it us it be whole south asia but 1000 yrs of colonial rule has shrink it to present size. you can compare them with the native indians of america, calling them having territorial ambition is very funny.
China backed Pakistan’s nuclear program ,
US backed India’s nuclear program .
Canada is an American pawn .
Canada is a Socialist country which believes that good works in humanitarian projects like these can spawn better societies. They follow their own path and continue to have disagreements with the US in regards to policy. Just because they have an inept inexperienced bumbling leader doesn’t mean they are totally without leadership. They balance it out by having better managers. Believe both countries still draw up invasion plans still to this day so not sure if either are true allies.
china began
China is trying to occupy borderarea from tiny kingdom of bhutan. If not for India China would have succeded in bullying Bhutan to submission, North Korean is just a distraction from china from its real growing military ambition. North korea is justa drama with uncle sam.
Heard Bhutan has more disputes with India than China in regards to infringing on Bhutan’s sovereign territory ,which India seems to do quite a bit infringing on others sovereign territory.
Just to show us all that military madness is not solely an American problem .
This dispute is over a high altitude glacier where human survival is a challenge .
Built a Tea House , sign a treaty of peace , and bring in the tourists .
The world doesn’t want to see India a independent state,it is and will always be the most conquered land in human history. Pak and BD were the phase 1 and the whole north till Assam will be the phase 2,not we but Brits did it,now we and Chinese have agreed to divide India further,sorry nothing can be done ,this time China will act as Briton,interestingly Sri Lanka also desires the southern part of its northern neighbor ,pl read history to believe