China keeps provoking India, says US diplomat

Washington: China is provoking India at every turn just as it is doing with the United States, a senior Biden administration official has told lawmakers.

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central India, Donald Lu made the statement while addressing members of the Senate Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism on Wednesday. Washington is committed to accelerating progress in strengthening India’s defence capacity to deter Chinese provocation, he added.

India’s relationship with China is right now going through a very difficult phase after Beijing violated agreements to not bring the military forces to the eastern Ladakh border.

“Just as an increasingly provocative China is challenging the United States, it is also provoking India at every turn,” Lu said.

“India staged a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games after China selected the regiment commander responsible for the attack on the Indian border that resulted in the death of 20 Indian soldiers in 2020 as an Olympic torchbearer,” he said.

Beijing also recently published new China maps reiterating claims to large swaths of territory in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, renaming its cities with new Chinese names. The border standoff in eastern Ladakh erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. The face-off escalated after the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15, 2020. India is engaged in talks with China on the eastern Ladakh border standoff, insisting that it will not agree to any change in the status quo or attempt to unilaterally alter the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“We remain committed to accelerating progress in our Major Defence Partnership and strengthening India’s capacity to deter Chinese provocations, through robust naval cooperation, enhanced information and intelligence sharing, and increased cooperation in emerging domains such as space and cyberspace,” Lu said.

Referring to the recent Quad ministerial in Melbourne, Lu said he was struck by how much the Quad is accomplishing and the determination of all Quad partners to support a free and open Indo-Pacific. Quad is a fourmember grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

The Quad is making strides in achieving the goal of delivering 1 billion doses of covid vaccines to the world, Lu disclosed. The collective is also working with the US on critical emerging technologies, de-carbonisation efforts in the Indo-Pacific and maritime cooperation and security, he added. In November 2017, the US, Australia, India and Japan came together to set up the Quad and develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence, amid China’s growing military presence in the strategic region. China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over East China Sea. - PTI