US general calls China’s actions on border with India ‘eye opening, destabilising’

Chinese activity near Ladakh, infrastructure being created alarming, says top general

ISTANBUL:

As the US moves to cement its “contain” China policy in the Asia-Pacific, an American military general on Wednesday called Beijing’s actions on the China-India border in the disputed Ladakh region “eye-opening” and “destabilising.”

“Chinese activity near Ladakh is ‘eye-opening’ and some of the infrastructure being created is alarming,” said Gen. Charles A Flynn, US military’s top general commanding the US Army Pacific, who is in India on a four-day visit, according to NDTV.

Flynn made the rare comments in conversation with a select group of journalists in New Delhi.

Read more: Beijing, New Delhi should be partners rather than adversaries: China

Since May 2020, China and India are stuck in a deadlock along the LAC – the de facto border between the countries in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region.

At least 24 soldiers, including 20 from India, died during the clashes in June 2020.

The two sides have held more than a dozen rounds of negotiations since then.

“I believe that the activity level is eye-opening,” said Flynn. “I think some of the infrastructure that is being created in the Western Theatre Command is alarming,” the US general said, adding that “one has to ask the question, ‘why’.”

Also read: India, China pull back from part of contested Himalayan border

India is part of the US-led Quad, a security alliance that also includes Australia and Japan.

“China’s ‘incremental and insidious path, and destabilising and corrosive behaviour’ projected onto the region was ‘simply not helpful’,” said Flynn. “I think it is worthy of us working together as a counterweight to some of those corrosive and corrupted behaviours that the Chinese (demonstrate),” said the US general.

Over the years, Washington and New Delhi have cemented bilateral relations in economy and defence with frequent joint summits between their finance and defence chiefs.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a surprise visit to New Delhi in March, where he said that both countries should “put the differences on the boundary issue in a proper place in bilateral relations, and stick to the right direction of bilateral ties.”