An Indian fighter jet flies over Leh, the joint capital of Ladakh. Photo: AFP
Experts believe the military stand-off between Chinese and Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir has made South Asia the most dangerous hotspot in a new cold war between Beijing and its United States-led rivals in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
By deploying troops to press an enhanced claim to the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, the northernmost Indian-administered region of Kashmir, China has significantly upped the probability of pre-existing disputes between India and Pakistan triggering further conflict in South Asia, the experts told This Week In Asia in a series of interviews.
Since India allegedly launched an air strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan in February last year, and unilaterally annexed the part of Kashmir it administers in August, relations between South Asia’s perennial enemies have been at their most strained since they last fought a war in 1999.
Both sides recalled their ambassadors and suspended bilateral communication last year, and last week expelled half of each other’s staff from their embassies in Islamabad and New Delhi over an espionage row.
Read More
www.scmp.com
Experts believe the military stand-off between Chinese and Indian forces in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir has made South Asia the most dangerous hotspot in a new cold war between Beijing and its United States-led rivals in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
By deploying troops to press an enhanced claim to the Galwan Valley in Ladakh, the northernmost Indian-administered region of Kashmir, China has significantly upped the probability of pre-existing disputes between India and Pakistan triggering further conflict in South Asia, the experts told This Week In Asia in a series of interviews.
Since India allegedly launched an air strike on a militant training camp in Pakistan in February last year, and unilaterally annexed the part of Kashmir it administers in August, relations between South Asia’s perennial enemies have been at their most strained since they last fought a war in 1999.
Both sides recalled their ambassadors and suspended bilateral communication last year, and last week expelled half of each other’s staff from their embassies in Islamabad and New Delhi over an espionage row.
Read More
China-India border dispute: is Pakistan about to enter the fray?
A military stand-off in the Himalayas raises the prospect of three nuclear-armed states fighting over not only Kashmir’s borders but glaciers that provide water to 270 million people.
www.scmp.com
