World
US intel helped India in standoff with China in disputed border region: Report
US intelligence on China’s incursion in the Himalayan region helped India repel a land grab attempt into the contested border territory, an American news outlet reported on Monday.
The real-time intel-sharing helped thwart a military incursion and a possible escalation of an already-tense situation, US News reported citing a source familiar with the matter.
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It “was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the US had previously shared with the Indian military,” the report added.
The information reportedly included detailed satellite imagery.
The incident took place on December 9 between Indian and Chinese troops in the Tawang sector of India’s Arunachal Pradesh state, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament on December 13.
The face-off resulted in a few soldiers on both sides sustaining injuries, a Reuters report at the time added.
Tensions along the nations’ disputed border have simmered since the June 2020 clash – the worst in more than 40 years – that left at least 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. That fighting was centered around the Himalayan region of Ladakh, along their disputed 3,488-kilometer (2,170-mile) border known as the Line of Actual Control (LOC).
Arunachal Pradesh, the scene of last Friday’s violence, was where much of the 1962 India-China war played out. The Yangtze area is one of three places along the frontier claimed by both countries.
The clash comes as the two sides have made significant progress to diffuse tensions, with some 16 rounds of talks between military commanders on both sides having taken place. The two sides have moved their troops back from some locations where the 2020 skirmishes took place.
The US and India share a common foe in China. In 2020, the two allies signed a Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-Spatial Cooperation (BECA), the fourth in a range of agreements that would see an exchange of information in the fields of military, logistics and security.
The White House refused to confirm the US News report in a daily news conference on Monday.
The news comes as US President Biden, like his four predecessors across party lines, put a priority on advancing relations with India, seeing the fellow democracy as a key partner as China rises, and in the face of Russian influence.
With Reuters
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