A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
(Full Story)
Search This Blog
Back to 500BC.
==========================
Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, August 12, 2017
India's military steps up operational readiness on China border
A
man walks inside a conference room used for meetings between military
commanders of China and India, at the Indian side of the Indo-China
border at Bumla, in Arunachal Pradesh, November 11, 2009.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's military has increased operational
readiness along the eastern Indian border with China, sources said, as
neither side shows any sign of backing off from a face-off in a remote
Himalayan region near their disputed frontier.
Indian and Chinese troops have been embroiled in the seven-week
confrontation on the Doklam plateau, claimed by both China and India's
tiny ally, Bhutan.
The sources, who were briefed on the deployment, said they did not
expect the tensions, involving about 300 soldiers on each side standing a
few hundred feet apart, to escalate into a conflict between the
nuclear-armed neighbours, who fought a brief but bloody border war in
1962.
But the military alert level had been raised as a matter of caution, two
sources in New Delhi and in the eastern state of Sikkim told Reuters on
the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The crisis began in June when a Chinese construction crew was found to
be trying to extend a road in the Doklam region that both China and the
mountainous nation of Bhutan claim as theirs.
India, which has special ties with Bhutan, sent its troops to stop the
construction, igniting anger in Beijing which said New Delhi had no
business to intervene, and demanded a unilateral troop withdrawal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration, though, has dug in its
heels and said that the Chinese road activity in the region near the
borders of India, Bhutan and China was a threat to the security of its
own northeast region.
"The army has moved to a state that is called 'no war, no peace'," one
of the sources said. Under the order issued to all troop formations in
the eastern command a week ago, soldiers are supposed take up positions
that are earmarked for them in the event of a war, the source said.
Each year, Indian troop formations deployed on the border go on such an
"operational alert" usually in September and October. But this year the
activity has been advanced in the eastern sector, the source in Sikkim,
above which lies the area of the current standoff, said.
"Its out of caution. It has been done because of the situation," the
source said. But the source stressed there was no additional force
deployment and that the area was well defended.
The move comes as diplomatic efforts to break the stalemate failed to
make headway, other sources with close ties to the Modi government told
Reuters earlier in the week.
China has repeatedly warned of an escalation if India did not order its
troops back. The state-controlled Global Times which has kept a barrage
of hostile commentary said this week that if Modi continued the present
course in the border, Beijing would have to take "counter-measures".
Ties between the neighbours have been souring over China's military
assistance to India's arch rival Pakistan and its expanding presence in
smaller nations in South Asia which New Delhi long regarded as its area
of influence.
China has criticised the Modi government's public embrace of the Dalai
Lama and its decision to let the Tibetan spiritual leader, whom it
regards as a "dangerous splittist", to the Indian state of Arunachal
Pradesh which China claims as its own.
Additional reporting by Zarir Hussain in GUWAHATI; Editing by Nick Macfie