US warned India of Chinese incursion: Report

The United States (US) provided India with real-time information about Chinese positions and force strength, ahead of an incursion by the People’s Liberation Army in Arunachal Pradesh late last year, a report in U.S. News, an American media outlet, said on Monday.

According to the report, quoting an unnamed source, the US shared actionable satellite imagery and the information was “more detailed and delivered more quickly” than anything Washington had shared with the Indian military till that point.

The administration did not confirm the report. When asked about the claims in the story, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications told reporters at the White House, “No, I can’t confirm that.”

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The report appeared to be referring to the India-China clash at Yangtse in Tawang in Arunachal on December 9, when Chinese troops unilaterally attacked two Indian outposts. Indian forces successfully repelled the incursion.

HT could not independently verify the claims made in the U.S. News story, but it comes in the backdrop of enhanced strategic engagement and intelligence-sharing between India and the US. It also comes in the backdrop of American officials confirming that in 2020, in the aftermath of the Galwan clash in the Ladakh sector, the US had shared intelligence with India.

Quoting the source — the report didn’t identify whether the source was from the intelligence, diplomatic or military ranks — the report said that the US had “given India everything to be fully prepared for this”, and the incident demonstrated a “test case” of military cooperation. It also attributed the information-sharing to one of the four foundational agreements signed between India and the US in recent years — in this case, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation.

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The report claimed that the intelligence was “highly reliable”. In the weeks before the incursion, the US was fully aware that China was carrying out “test exercises” in the region; PLA troops were toying with the prospect of moving forward and staying along the part of the border that wasn’t officially demarcated; but US intelligence helped India identify the positions, which then “maneuvered to intercept them”.

While the report did not offer an exact explanation for the timing of Chinese actions, it referred to a second US intelligence assessment — of “lower reliability” than the first. This assessment suggested that India-US joint military exercises in the weeks leading up to the incursion “enraged Beijing”.