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Focus on border infra led to improved response to China’s activities: Jaishankar
The annual budget for the Border Roads Organisation has been ramped up from ₹3,782 crore in 2013-14 to ₹14,387 crore in 2023-24, external affairs minister, S Jaishankar said
NEW DELHI: The government’s focus on border infrastructure and connectivity over the past nine years has significantly improved India’s ability to respond to China’s actions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.
India and China remain engaged in talks to resolve the standoff in Ladakh sector after addressing tensions at five to six focal points on the LAC, he said during an interaction with reporters that focused on the Modi government’s work to ramp up border infrastructure.
The two sides have been locked in a military standoff in eastern Ladakh since April-May 2020. Bilateral ties plummeted to a six-decade low after a brutal skirmish in Galwan Valley killed 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese troops. Jaishankar has consistently said India-China relations cannot be normalised without restoring peace and tranquillity on the border.
China had the first mover advantage because it steadily improved infrastructure on its side of the LAC from the 1990s and India suffered due to a flawed view within previous governments that leaving border regions undeveloped would deter incursions, Jaishankar said. The improvement of infrastructure led to increased contestation and patrolling by the Chinese side, he said.
The current standoff, he said, was triggered by the “intentions” of the Chinese side, and not India’s construction of infrastructure in its own territory.
“In the past, [Chinese] troops would come in vehicles while our troops used mule tracks. Now, if we can deploy our troops in large numbers, one big reason is infrastructure. China had the first mover advantage, and now we will do what needs to be done, whether they like it or not,” he said.
Pointing to the annual budget for the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) being ramped up from ₹3,782 crore in 2013-14 to ₹14,387 crore in 2023-24, Jaishankar said: “After 2014, [is the] Indian military able to deploy and counter any Chinese movement better? Absolutely, no question about it.”
Indian troops were able to deploy speedily in 2020 because border infrastructure had improved, he contended. “If the same thing had happened in 2014, we would have been at a huge disadvantage. They developed infrastructure and we did not match it,” he said.
A total of 6,806 km of roads was built in border areas during 2014-22, whereas the figure for 2008-14 was 3,610 km. Another 1,800 km of roads will be built in Arunachal Pradesh at a cost of ₹30,000 crore, while five strategic tunnels have been completed in the past three years to improve access to key mountain passes, which now remain closed for a shorter period every year. Work on 10 tunnels is underway and five more are being planned.
These developments on the ground will determine the “quality of our response” to national security challenges, Jaishankar said, while acknowledging that there were complexities in negotiations to resolve the standoff on the LAC.
Rejecting the opposition’s criticism of the government over the border row, he said: “It was said that we won’t be able to do anything, the talks won’t be successful, there won’t be any progress, disengagement can’t take place. But solutions were found at some focal points for tensions in the past three years.”
Galwan Valley, Pangong Lake and Hot Springs are among the places where tensions were addressed. While there has been no “complete solution”, diplomacy and negotiations take time as they are complicated, Jaishankar said.
Responding to a question, Jaishankar said the Indian side carefully tracks negotiations between Bhutan and China to resolve their border row. Bhutan and China have had 24 rounds of border since the 1980s and it is “for them to determine” the issue, he said.
Jaishankar said China has developed a large number of border villages, some close to the LAC and others in interior areas. The Indian side too made an allocation in its last budget to develop “vibrant villages”. This was done to provide better amenities, including road and digital connectivity, so that residents of border regions won’t move to interior areas, he said.
