US Provided Some Info, Equipment To India During Its Border Crisis With China – Pentagon Commander
Mar 10, 2021
“We have provided some information to India in that crisis, cold-weather closing, clothing, some other equipment, some things like that, and over the last several years, we have been deepening our maritime cooperation,” he said.
The US provided some information, cold-weather clothing and some other equipment to India during its recent border crisis with China, which has adopted an increasingly assertive military posture to exert pressure and expand its influence across the region, a top Pentagon commander has told American lawmakers.
Admiral Philips Davidson, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, also told the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that China’s recent activities along the Line of Actual Control have opened India’s eyes to what cooperative effort with others might mean for their own defensive needs as he observed that New Delhi, in the very near term, will deepen its engagement with the QUAD.
“India has long had an approach called strategic autonomy, you know, a nonaligned approach with others, but I think certainly the activities along the Line of Actual Control with China has opened their eyes to what cooperative effort with others might mean for their own defensive needs,” Admiral Davidson told lawmakers during the Congressional hearing.
“We have provided some information to India in that crisis, cold-weather closing, clothing, some other equipment, some things like that, and over the last several years, we have been deepening our maritime cooperation,” he said.
China moved over 60,000 well-armed troops who were mobilised for annual exercises, to contentious areas like Pangong Lake in eastern Ladakh in May last year, prompting India to match the PLA’s mobilisation which led to an over eight-month long standoff.
After lengthy rounds of talks, the two sides simultaneously withdrew troops from Pangong Lake area last month while talks are on for the withdrawal of soldiers from the rest of the areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
Courtesy: ET