文/ Fat Man Eggplant
Although on the surface it seems that the 17th round of Army Commanders’ Talks between China and India has achieved some results. However, behind the scenes, India is still aggressively increasing its troops to the border and eyeing China covetously. As a result, disaster struck before India could stir up trouble again.
(Indian Army Convoy Sending Troops to the Border)
According to a report by "India Today" on December 25, a convoy of the Indian Army that was sending troops to the border encountered a very tragic accident.
It is reported that the incident took place in the North Sikkim region. At that time, the troop transport convoy consisted of three trucks and was planned to drive from Chateng to the Tangu Valley region. However, when was passing through the Zema area, a truck accidentally lost control, ran out of the lane and fell from a cliff several meters high.
Photos from the scene show that the truck has been almost completely twisted and deformed, making it difficult to distinguish its original appearance, which shows the magnitude of the impact. Naturally, casualties are inevitable.
(The truck that smashed into a pile of scrap metal)
It is reported that the truck in the incident originally carried 20 Indian military officers and soldiers, including the crew. Although after the incident, Indian soldiers in the same convoy quickly launched a rescue and called ambulances and helicopters, it was still difficult to save a large number of casualties. It is reported that in addition to the 4 soldiers who were found to still have signs of life and were rushed to a nearby hospital for rescue by helicopter, the 3 junior officers and 13 soldiers in the car died on the spot in the accident.
It is reported that this is the most serious non-training casualty accident in the Indian Army this year. Prime Minister Modi and Defense Minister Singh have expressed their condolences to the families of the victims. However, as of now, India has not disclosed the specific cause of the accident and the corresponding compensation measures.
(The car body in the accident was completely twisted and deformed)
During the 17th round of China-India military commander-level talks held before the accident, the Indian side agreed to maintain communication and dialogue on border tensions and maintain regional security and stability. However, the Indian side has not fulfilled its promise to "jointly maintain security and stability" as promised. Instead, it has continued to send more troops to the Sino-Indian border areas. This is probably the "culprit" that caused the Indian army to encounter this tragic car accident.
It is reported that this is not the first time that India has done this. Just a few days ago, Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar publicly stated: "India has increased its military strength on the Sino-Indian border to an unprecedented level." This is obviously demonstrating India's military expansion ambition to "target China with force."
Some data also pointed out that the Indian army had previously deployed about 120,000 combat troops on the Sino-Indian border, but since this year, India has expanded this number to about 200,000. India must be extremely vigilant about this ambition.
(Indian military post near the Sino-Indian border)
In addition, the Sino-Indian border conflicts have also greatly affected the Modi government’s foreign policy. Although India has previously been excluded from traditional Western military alliances, it has joined the so-called "Quadrilateral Security Dialogue" led by the United States on the basis of overlapping common interests in confronting China.
However, India is not very willing to establish a real "military cooperation relationship" with the United States - of course this is not because of fear of China, but because India currently does not want to anger another of its partners, that is Russia. Of course, on the other hand, it is also because India does not have the confidence to "break up" with China.
(Indian troops on the Sino-Indian border)
What is very interesting is that, unlike traditional security conflicts, what is growing simultaneously with the rising friction on the Sino-Indian border is the increasingly hot trade between China and India. Since the outbreak of the Sino-Indian border conflict, Sino-Indian trade has repeatedly hit record highs. A large number of Chinese electronic hardware, smart devices, medical drugs and other products have poured into India, which has become an important foundation for India's transformation into an information society.
Today, India's annual trade deficit with China has exceeded US$73.3 billion, 49 times the level at the beginning of this century. This shows that India is highly dependent on Chinese goods in the process of economic transformation.In other words, the harm China will suffer from losing the Indian market will be far greater than the harm suffered by India losing China.
With India’s already poor economic situation, will the Modi government take the initiative to provoke a conflict with China? Of course it's possible, but he probably won't dare to do it in the short term.
