Posted on 12/13/2007 3:01:52 AM PST by Flavius
Dec. 12: The Indian Army is relocating a division of troops to North Bengal from Jammu after the security establishment has taken stock of a Chinese move into a high plateau in Bhutan named Dolam.
Major elements of the 27 Mountain Division have already moved out and among these are units of the 164 Mountain Brigade based in Kalimpong, an army headquarters source has confirmed to The Telegraph.
A Chinese move into Dolam means that India’s border with China gets distorted at Sikkim’s tri-point with Bhutan. It also means that Chinese forces move a few kilometres south from where they originally were. It brings them closer to North Bengal’s Siliguri Corridor. China has always laid claim to Dolam. There is a suspicion that it has now extended its claim line.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraphindia.com ...
bttt
All I wanted to say was that the US will not have the option to sit back and watch.”
I am not sure what supplies would actually pour in. India’s defense systems are hardly compatible with American systems and the logistics, the infrastructure and training required to operate and integrate American systems wont change over night. Besides America will look out for its own interests. China is a bigger business partner then India and they are a strong enemy to take on, they wont jump on India’s side so quickly. I doubt they would take such a risk.
On November 13, 2005, Chinese soldiers crossed into Bhutan under the pretext that environmental conditions had forced their retreat south from the Himalayas. The Bhutanese government allowed this incursion (after the fact) on humanitarian grounds.[citation needed] Soon after, the Chinese began building roads and bridges within Bhutanese territory. Bhutanese Foreign Minister Khandu Wangchuk took up the matter with Chinese authorities after the issue was raised in Bhutanese parliament. In response, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang of the People's Republic of China has said that the border remains in dispute (completely ignoring the original official pretext for the incursion) and that the two sides continue to work for a peaceful and cordial resolution of the dispute. An Indian intelligence officer has said that a Chinese delegation in Bhutan told the Bhutanese that they were "overreacting." The Bhutanese newspaper Kuensel has said that China might use the roads to further Chinese claims along the border.
Bhutan has no formal relations with the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom or France. This is possibly done deliberately so Bhutan is not seen as an enemy to China, these nations all being members of the United Nations Security Council.[citation needed] Informal contact with the United States is made through the U.S. embassy in New Delhi.
The last time there was an Indo-Chinese confrontation, the Americans were supplying India.
as you see below no one cares so we should all go back to regular programing
Asked about whether Indian Army was concerned about reported intrusions of Chinese army into Bhutan, he said it was a matter between Bhutan and China to solve.
“It is a matter between Bhutan and China to resolve. So that is a issue at diplomatic level. I have nothing to say,” he said.
On the upcoming military exercise between Indian and Chinese army, Kapoor said it will basically focus on counter terror operations.
“The threat of terrorism is increasing. We all are facing it. The exercise will basically focus on Counter terrorism operations,” the Army Chief said.
At the time we were operating a lot of vintage British and Americans equippments. Soviet weaponry were almost non existant in the Indian inventory.
That’s a good point. How about satellite intelligence, radars, etc?
Good post and reasoning.
What I think US could do however is give us aerial recon and AWAC support if at all they would want to get involved in Indo-China conflict. They would have to operate the AWAC while our fighters would receive real time info through datalink. India and US have done excercises (both Navy and Airforce) to work out the modalities and integration issues to be able to jointly coordinate in operations. I dont whats the current status and how far we have actually progressed on sorting out integrational issues but my guess would be we have fair amount of capability to jointly coordinate in military operations.
But we would still require their (US) direct involvement, not just their equipment, in order to jointly coordinate. The question is how far would they want to get involved.
I think the stakes for the US are higher in a China vs India situation than in a China vs Taiwan situation. Even from a toe-hold in the Indian ocean situation, it will be worse off for the US should China start to push downwards into India.
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