Tawang sector vulnerable to frequent conflicts with Chinese PLA

The Yangtse area in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang sector, where Indian and Chinese soldiers clashed last week, is prone to face-offs, with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) making efforts almost every year to unilaterally change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) but a firm Indian military posture has thwarted the repeated attempts, officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

“PLA has been trying to transgress LAC in the area for several years. They come and we push them back. They come back and we push them back again. There’s no question of letting them change the status quo. Even the latest transgression was expected, and we were prepared,” said one of the officials cited above, who asked not to be named.

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In a statement in Parliament on the December 9 skirmish, defence minister Rajnath Singh said Indian soldiers prevented PLA from transgressing into Indian territory and compelled them to return to their posts, while the army on Monday said Indian soldiers responded in a firm and resolute manner --- both statements reflecting the high level of preparedness of the Indian Army.

“The latest face-off shows that the Indian Army is prepared to deal with any kind of unilateral Chinese effort to change the status quo of LAC,” said Lieutenant General SL Narasimhan (retd), a member of the National Security Advisory Board. Scores of Indian and Chinese soldiers were involved in a tense face-off in the Yangtse area last year too.

The Indian Army has adequate forces deployed across Arunachal Pradesh to deal with any contingency. In certain areas where the deployment was thin, steps were taken to strengthen it, army chief General Manoj Pande said in October 2021 when he was the Eastern Army commander. The army’s new mountain strike corps, raised to counter the Chinese threat in the east, is also fully operational now.

India is building infrastructure at a rapid pace in eastern Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh with focus on better living experience and improved facilities for soldiers, conservation of modern weapons and equipment deployed there, and supporting faster movement of men and material to deal with any contingency.

The Sela tunnel project in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the key elements of India’s big infrastructure push in forward areas, is expected to be completed by April 2023. It will allow faster deployment of weapons and soldiers to forward areas in the Tawang sector.

The tunnel, announced by the government in 2018, will be the longest twin-lane tunnel above 13,000 feet in the world, and will cut down travel time to Tawang by at least one hour as well as provide all-weather connectivity.