JOIN USUS Defence Secretary equates Russia-Ukraine conflict with Indo-China situation in Ladakh
Even as New Delhi and Beijing recently failed in yet another attempt to end the impasse in negotiations to resolve the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, the United States on Monday drew a parallel between Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and China’s against India and the other nations in the Indo-Pacific region.
“We face a rapidly changing world. We see bullying and coercion from China, Russian aggression against Ukraine that seeks to redraw borders by force and threatens national sovereignty, as well as transnational challenges, such as terrorism and climate change,” Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defence, said in New Delhi.
Austin had a meeting with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Monday, primarily to lay the ground ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Joe Biden in Washington DC on June 22.
“So democracies must now rally together around not just our common interest, but also our shared values. Preserving and protecting the freedoms that are essential to peace and prosperity will require vigorous leadership from the United States and India. And so we still have a lot of work to do, but I am confident that the US-India Partnership will help to secure an open and prosperous future for the Indo-Pacific and the wider world,” said the US Secretary of Defence.
Austin’s visit to New Delhi came just days after India and China failed to end the stalemate in the negotiations for a mutual withdrawal of front-line troops from the remaining face-off points along the Line of Actual Control – the de facto boundary between the two nations – in eastern Ladakh.
A meeting between diplomats and other senior officials of the two nations in New Delhi on May 31 ended without a breakthrough as China continued to insist on creating a “no-patrol zone” of 15-20 km width in the territory of India in Depsang Plains – one of the remaining face-off points along the LAC. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his counterpart Qin Gang refrained from holding a bilateral meeting on the sideline of a BRICS meet in South Africa last week, apparently because the two sides could not end the stalemate.
Singh and Austin on Monday discussed “the regional security issues” given “the shared interest” of India and the US in “maintaining peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region”, the Ministry of Defence stated in a press-release issued in New Delhi, sending out a subtle message to Beijing.
The US also acknowledged “India’s leading role as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific region”, as Austin and Singh committed to strengthening operational collaboration across all military services. They discussed new opportunities to strengthen information sharing and increase cooperation in the maritime domain.
The US Secretary of Defence welcomed India's leadership role in the Quad Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative (IPMDA).
The IPMDA is intended to provide cutting-edge domain awareness capability to countries across the Indo-Pacific region, which has been witnessing the increasing belligerence of China.
Austin and Doval discussed the security scenario in the Indian Ocean Region and exchanged views on the expanding maritime collaboration between India and the US.
India has been drawing flak from the western nations for defying the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and the European Union and continuing its trade and economic engagement with the former Soviet Union nation after President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of the “special military operations” in Ukraine in February 2022.
After his meeting with Singh, Austin, however, sent out a message to New Delhi by putting the military aggression by Russia and China in the same bracket.