JOIN USUS closely monitoring situation along India-China LAC, says American Secretary of Defence
The United States is “closely monitoring” India-China military stand-off along the disputed boundary between the two nations, American Secretary of Defence Mark T Esper said on Tuesday.
A day after the warships of the Indian Navy and the United States Navy had a joint exercise near Malacca Strait to send out a message to China, Esper said that US and India shared “one of the all-important defence relationships of the 21st century”. The US Secretary of Defence also slammed China’s aggressive and expansionist moves in the Indo-Pacific region and its “brazen disregard for international commitments” and disrespect for the rights of other nations guaranteed by the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea.
“We are obviously monitoring the situation between India and China very closely, what is happening along the Line of Actual Control and we are very pleased to see both sides are trying to de-escalate the situation,” said Esper, while speaking at an online event hosted by International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS).
The Line of Actual Control (LAC) serves as the de facto boundary between India and China in the western sector. The two neighbouring nations could not make much headway during negotiations over the past 17 years to settle the protracted dispute over their long boundary.
Esper and his counterpart in New Delhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, had spoken over phone twice after the Indian Army responded to the aggressive and expansionist moves by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to unilaterally alter the status quo along the LAC had triggered a military stand-off in eastern Ladakh in early May.
His comment came a day after the Indian Navy’s warships INS Rana, INS Sahyadri, INS Shivalik and INS Kamorta had a “cooperative exercise” with the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group in Indian Ocean off Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Apart from the USS Nimitz, the other US Navy ships like guided missile cruiser USS Princeton and missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Ralph Johnson joined the Indian Navy ships to conduct high-end exercises. The USS Nimitz and another US carrier USS Ronald Reagan earlier had an exercise in the South China Sea, riling up China.
The USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group on Tuesday also participated in a trilateral exercise with the warships of Australian Navy and the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force in the Philippines Sea.
The US Navy’s joint naval drill with the warships of India on Monday and Japan and Australia on Tuesday were apparently a response to China’s belligerence – not only in eastern Ladakh, but also in South China Sea, East China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
“The People’s Liberation Army (of China) continues its aggressive behaviour in the East and South China Seas. The Communist Party of China has bullied (the) ASEAN nations out of an estimated $2.6 trillion in potential offshore oil and gas revenue and denied them access to important fishing grounds,” said the US Secretary of Defence.
“(The) US commitment to free and open Indo-Pacific is rooted in values, history and economic ties (that) we share with allies and partners and has only grown deeper in the face of efforts to undermine it,” Esper said, adding: “Three pillars of (the) US Indo-Pacific Strategy are based on preparedness, strengthening partnerships, and promoting a more networked region”.
“Our carriers have been in the South China Sea and Indo-Pacific since World War II. We will back the sovereignty of our friends and partners,” added Esper. “ (The) US policy on the South China Sea “champions a free and open Indo-Pacific… and makes clear that the PRC has no right to turn international waters into a zone of exclusion or its own maritime empire”.