External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Saturday that India's border with China has become “more alive” and now needs a much greater commitment of Indian troops on a sustained basis, as he set out how a decade of roads, bridges, tunnels and airfields has transformed deployment along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Source: Hindustan Times

Speaking at the HT Leadership Summit in New Delhi on November 14, Jaishankar said border infrastructure had been neglected until about a decade ago — plans were drawn up but implementation on the ground stayed limited — and that higher budgetary allocations since then have sharply raised the pace of construction.

Source: The India Cover

He said the progress could be judged by the kilometres of roads built each year, the number of tunnels completed and the facilities created to support troop deployment, adding that the improved infrastructure has made it easier for India to move large numbers of soldiers to the border and keep them there for longer periods.

Shift after Galwan

Jaishankar linked the build-up to the policy shift that followed the Galwan Valley clash of June 15, 2020, in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed; China later acknowledged that four of its soldiers had also died. The clash, which came after China mobilised large numbers of troops in eastern Ladakh, led to a prolonged military standoff at several points along the LAC.

Source: Rediff News

On the wider competition with China, he said the two economies were of roughly comparable size in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, but China modernised rapidly from the 1980s while India's 1990s reforms were not pursued consistently. India, he said, should not try to match China in every sector, but move fast in chosen areas of strength, including domestic manufacturing.

Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also attended the summit, said Washington should not expect India to think like the United States or always act to its preferences, and that he understood India's wish to pursue an independent foreign policy.