China Military News —
Indian Ministry of Defence officials said Monday that two mountain divisions will be deployed in southern Tibet, an area claimed by Beijing, and will be “fully operational” by next year.
Chinese experts dismissed the defiant move, saying it is a misstep on New Delhi’s behalf. India is “fast-tracking new troop formations” in southern Tibet, and the two fresh infantry mountain divisions, with 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, should be “fully operational with specialized equipment” by next year, according to the Times of India. “The two divisions are now virtually in place, with officers and soldiers already being posted for them.
They are in the process of getting new equipment, which includes armored personnel carriers and light howitzers,” a defense ministry official told the newspaper.
“The first battalion of the Arunachal Scouts will be up and running by May 2011,” the official said, marking a first for the Indian Army in applying the “Arunachal” name to a company.
“Arunachal Pradesh” is the Indian name for the area, over which China claims sovereignty.
In October 2009, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned a visit to the area by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman of the ministry, urged the Indian government to address Beijing’s “serious concerns” and not to trigger a disturbance in the region “so as to facilitate the healthy development of China-India relations,” the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The latest report of Indian battalions came three weeks after Singh invited his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, for an official visit to India to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides.
“Since a war with China in 1962, the Indian army has set up a total of 10 mountain divisions in the region,” Wang Dehua, an expert on India at the Shanghai International Studies Center, told the Global Times. “Such a move aims to add chips to the upcoming China-India talks on border disputes.”
It seems that “those hawkish groups in New Delhi are getting above themselves after the US voiced support for India’s bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council,” Wang added.
Sun Shihai, an expert on Asia Pacific studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that New Delhi’s plan to increase troops in the region adds difficulties to the border talks.
“By making such a move, India showed its unwillingness to make a concession during the demarcation talks,” he said.
Separately, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told Xinhua on Sunday that the two sides “should regard each other’s rise as an opportunity, not a challenge.”
“We have had times of difficulty in our relationship. But despite those difficulties, we have managed to raise the level of our dialogue and strengthen our cooperation to create an architecture for dialogue,” Rao said. “That should be the basis for what we do in the future.”
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