Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is on a visit to Ladakh a day after India’s foreign ministry categorically said no territory had been ceded in the region. The fire onboard the U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard at San Diego Naval Base has finally been put out, Japan has inducted it’s first Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft and Saudi Arabia has announced a new defence exhibition.
Progress is scarce on a resolution to the Ladakh stand-off
Australia plans to hike defence spending
NATO allies France and Turkey have had a row
Finland’s air force has discarded its old insignia
Germany has disbanded a special forces unit over right wing extremism
As China menaces India’s access to the Karakoram Pass, Sujan Dutta explains that Delhi needs to defend its ground or end up papering over the changed reality.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has moved swiftly to convince New Delhi into an entente which is obviously directed at the containment of China.
The India-Japan Joint Working Group (JWG) have held preliminary meetings to initiate the process for acquisition of the ShinMaywa US-2i amphibious aircraft for the Indian Navy.
Air Chief Marshal Norman Anil Kumar Browne told reporters that the aircraft would be able to operate from the country’s northern-most Advanced Landing Ground at Daulat Beg Oldie close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
In purely dollar terms, the new price represents a 37 percent hike in the cost of the offer to India, but would effectively be even higher given the fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar since 2010.
The Flag Meeting took place on a day when Indian Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurien Antony had some tough words for the intruders at the Unified Commanders Conference of the Indian armed forces.
The fourth round of ADD, held after nearly two years, was led by India’s Defense Secretary Shashikant Sharma and Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Deputy Chief of General Staff General Ma Xiaotian. The two sides also discussed defense exchanges for 2012 and agreed to “gradually enhance” the range and scope of their interaction, according to Indian defense ministry officials.
The Indian Army has asked the defense ministry to upgrade about a dozen airfields and advanced landing grounds (ALGs) in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh with night landing facilities to improve the transportation of supplies and troops to the sensitive borders areas with China and Pakistan.
The proposed mechanism would comprise diplomats from the external affairs ministry and military personnel, including representatives of paramilitary and intelligence agencies.
Lieutenant General KT Parnaik is on two-day visit to the strategically crucial Ladakh region, where India shares its borders with China, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the AGPL at the Siachen glacier.
Rashtriya Rifles’ Delta Force commander Major General Gurmeet Singh, responsible for anti-insurgency operations in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban areas of Jammu and Kashmir, will head the eight-member delegation that will tour Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang province in western China.
The proposal is currently being vetted by the Ministry of Defense and if cleared, it would take at least four years to construct the requisite infrastructure at Nyoma, which is envisaged to allow fighter operations.
StratPost’s Saurabh Joshi tries to analyze the fortnight-long controversy over intrusions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army across the Line of Actual Control into India and the larger environment between the two countries from which this flare-up has arisen.
