US, India can jointly deploy ships, air forces in Pacific, Indian Ocean, Biden's envoy to Delhi says in message to China

The United States and India can together deploy ships and air forces in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to ward off any threat to maritime security, the envoy of Washington DC to New Delhi, Eric Garcetti, said on Wednesday, apparently sending out a message to China.

He made the remark even as New Delhi underlined that the situation in the India-China border areas had not yet turned normal and hence the ties between the two nations could not yet return on track.

“We can deploy our ships together in the Pacific and Indian oceans, and even beyond, to ensure maritime security. We can employ our air forces across the Indo-Pacific region to ensure freedom of the skies and the seas, and to jointly respond to humanitarian crises from the Sahara to the Pacific Islands,” Garcetti said while delivering a speech at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi. “We can coordinate our land-force exercises across regions to bolster the sovereign defence of all countries who want to work with us. These are opportunities fully within our control as Major Defence Partners.”

He apparently sought to underline the strength of the India-US partnership in responding to the belligerence of China in the Indo-Pacific region.

The US ambassador to New Delhi made the remark on a day External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reiterated that normalcy in India-China relations had not yet been restored as the situation in the border areas remained abnormal.

Read | 3 years after Galwan clashes, border stand-off lingers on

The state of the border will decide the state of the relationship between India and China and the state of the border is not normal, Jaishankar said at a separate event in New Delhi on Wednesday.

He was apparently referring to the continuing military stand-off along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

“A key component of peace is protection. As we’ve unfortunately seen over the past three years, we live in a world in which countries ignore sovereign borders, advancing their claims through violence and destruction,” Garcetti said, apparently referring to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and China’s against India across the Himalayas.

“Together, India and the United States of America can build a bulwark against this “might makes right” mentality. Working together, the world’s two largest democracies can bolster the security, stability, and prosperity of the entire world,” said the envoy of the Washington DC to New Delhi.

The stand-off started in April-May 2020 when the Indian Army resisted the aggressive attempt by the Chinese PLA to change the status quo along the LAC and to push the line westward. Negotiations between the two sides over the past three years resulted in the mutual withdrawal of frontline troops by the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA from four places along the LAC in eastern Ladakh – Galwan Valley, northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra Post and Hot Springs.

China continues to have its PLA troops deployed in Depsang well inside the territory of India and they continue to block the Indian Army’s access to Patrolling Points 10, 11, 12, 12A and 13. A face-off is also continuing near Charding-Ninglung Nala in the south of Demchok.