New Delhi: A councillor from Ladakh region has raised alarm over China installing three mobile towers very close to the Indian border, days after the US voiced concern over Beijing’s construction of “dual-use infrastructure along India’s border”.
Ladakh’s Chushul Councillor Konchok Stanzin tweeted on the Chinese construction, saying: “After completing the bridge over Pangong lake, China has installed 3 mobile towers near China’s hot spring very close to the Indian territory.
“Isn’t it a concern? We don’t even have 4G facilities in human habitation villages. 11 villages in my constituency have no 4G facilities,” he said.
China’s buildup of infrastructure near the Indian border found mention in the India-US 2+2 talks earlier this week, when US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Washington, that Beijing is “eroding the security” of the Indo-Pacific region with construction of “dual-use infrastructure along India’s border”.
Austin said: “The People’s Republic of China is seeking to refashion the region and the international system more broadly in ways that serve its authoritarian interests. Across the region, the People’s Republic of China is attempting to challenge and undermine the sovereignty of its neighbours. Beijing is eroding the security of the Indo-Pacific region from its construction of dual-use infrastructure along your border to its unlawful claims in the South China Sea, and we will continue to stand alongside you as you defend your sovereign interest.”
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had conveyed during talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi last month that there can be no normalcy in the bilateral ties unless the troops amassed at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are withdrawn.
Meanwhile, top commanders of the Indian Army are gathering in the national capital from April 18-22 to carry out an extensive review of India’s national security challenges along the borders with China and Pakistan as well as assess any possible geopolitical implications of the Russia-Ukraine war at a five-day conclave beginning Monday.
To be chaired by Army Chief Gen MM Naravane, the commanders’ conference will also carry out a comprehensive review of India’s military preparedness along the 3,400-km-long Line of Actual Control (LAC) in view of the lingering military standoff with China in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh.