US backed India and claims China continues with its ‘provocative and disturbing behaviour’

Washington:

The US has backed India amidst a flare-up of border tensions with China with a high diplomat describing Beijing’s aggression as “not always rhetorical” and accusing it of constant with its “provocative and disturbing behaviour” to attempt to shift the established order. Alice G Wells, the senior US diplomat for South and Central Asia, mentioned China’s border tensions with India and Beijing’s growing assertiveness within the contested South China Sea have some correlation.

“The flare-ups on the border, I think, are a reminder that Chinese aggression is not always just rhetorical. And so whether it’s on the South China Sea or whether it’s along the border with India we continue to see provocations and disturbing behaviour by China that raises questions about how China seeks to use its growing power,” Wells, the outgoing head of the South and Central Asia bureau within the US State Department, informed reporters in a convention name on Wednesday. ”There’s a way right here to Chinese operations, and it’s that fixed aggression, the fixed try to shift the norms, to shift what’s the establishment. It must be resisted,” the senior US diplomat informed the Atlantic Council assume tank at a separate occasion held on Wednesday.

She was responding to a query on the current flare-up on the India-China border. Wells retires from the State Department on May 22 after a 31-year-long profession throughout which she headed the vital South and Central Asia Bureau of the State Department for 3 years within the Trump administration. She additionally talked about China’s aggressive behaviour within the strategic South China Sea. China claims sovereignty over the entire South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims.

China is engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in each the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has constructed up and militarised most of the islands and reefs it controls within the area. Both areas are said to be wealthy in minerals, oil and different pure sources and are additionally very important to world commerce. “And that is why you have seen a rallying of like-minded nations or whether it’s .. through ASEAN or through other diplomatic groupings, the trilateral that the United States has with Japan and India, the quadrilateral with Australia, the conversations that are taking place globally as to how we can reinforce the principles of the post-World War II economic order that has supported free and open trade that help lift all boats, including the Chinese boat,” Wells mentioned.

“What we want to see is an international system that provides benefit to everyone and not a system in which there is a suzerainty to China. I think in this instance, the border disputes are a reminder of the threat posed by China,” the highest American diplomat mentioned. On May 5, round 250 Indian and Chinese military personnel clashed with iron rods, sticks, and even resorted to stone-pelting within the Pangong Tso lake space wherein troopers on each side sustained accidents.

In a separate incident, practically 150 Indian and Chinese army personnel have been engaged in a face-off close to Naku La Pass within the Sikkim sector on May 9. At least 10 troopers from each side sustained accidents within the incident, in line with sources. The troops of India and China have been engaged in a 73-day stand-off in Doklam tri-junction in 2017. The India-China border dispute covers the three,488-km-long Line of Actual Control, the de-facto border between the 2 international locations. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as a part of southern Tibet whereas India contests it. Both sides have emphasised that pending the ultimate decision of the boundary concern, it’s crucial to keep up peace and tranquillity within the border areas. 

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