Washington:
China is provoking India at every turn, just as it is doing with the United States, and Washington is determined to accelerate progress in strengthening India’s defense capacity to deter Chinese provocations, a senior Biden administration official has told lawmakers .
India’s relationship with China is currently going through a very difficult phase after Beijing breached agreements not to bring the armed forces to the eastern border with Ladakh.
“Just as an increasingly provocative China challenges the United States, it also provokes India at every turn,” Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central India, Donald Lu, told members of the Senate Subcommittee on the Near East, South Asia. Central Asia and counter-terrorism on Wednesday.
“India carried out a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics after China chose the regimental commander responsible for the attack on the Indian border that resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in 2020,” he said.
Beijing also recently published new China maps that reiterate claims to large areas of territory in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh and rename the cities with new Chinese names.
The border crossing in eastern Ladakh broke out on May 5, 2020, after a violent clash in the Pangong Lake area. The confrontation escalated after the clashes in the Galwan Valley on June 15, 2020.
India is in talks with China on Ladakh’s eastern border, with absolute clarity that it will not agree to any change in the status quo or any attempt to unilaterally change the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the region.
Lu also told lawmakers that the US was also working with India to bolster its defense capabilities.
“We remain committed to accelerating progress in our Major Defense 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 said Lu.
Referring to the recent Quad ministerial meeting in Melbourne, Lu said he was struck by how much the Quad is achieving and the determination of all Quad partners to support a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Quad is a four-member grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan formed to advance the shared vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region.
The Quad is making huge strides in reaching the goal of delivering 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world, Lu said.
The US International Development Finance Corporation has provided $50 million in long-term financing to Biological E Ltd to develop manufacturing capacity to produce at least one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the end of 2022,” he said.
“We have discussed critical and emerging technologies through the Quad and are also working together to support clean energy and decarbonization efforts in the Indo-Pacific region, including through green shipping and clean hydrogen initiatives,” he added. .
“The Quad also works together on maritime cooperation and safety. We share data on maritime domain awareness, fighting illegal fishing together, and our four countries have conducted complex and large-scale naval exercises in the annual Malabar exercise,” said Lu.
He refuted Senator Ted Cruz’s allegations that the Biden administration has not prioritized countering China in the Quad.
“I’ve attended every session of the Quad discussions and in every session of those discussions we talk about countering China with our three Quad partners. We are talking about China countering China with security and defense activities.
“We’re also talking about countering China with COVID vaccines because we know that’s part of China’s reach in the Indo-Pacific. So I’m taking an exception to that statement. That’s not what I’ve seen” said Lu.
In November 2017, the US, Australia, India and Japan gave shape to the long-running proposal to establish the Quad to 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 almost all of the disputed South China Sea, although 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 the East China Sea.