China challenge: India must stabilise Kashmir to counter Beijing’s multi-pronged strategy in the east

News: Pentagon recently released a report stating that that China has been undertaking incremental and tactical actions to press its claims along the frontier with India. How should India respond to this emerging situation?

What are the observations made in the Pentagon Report?

The report has made alarming observations that China is rapidly undertaking military modernization and may expand its nuclear arsenal to 1,000 warheads by 2030. The Chinese ambition is to surpass US power by 2049 and displace American alliances. One of the strategic motive behind China’s incursions along the Himalayan border and attempts to thwart peaceful settlement is to prevent deepening of the Indo-US ties.

What is the way forward for India?

India must take the following steps to counter the Chinese threat:

Keeping the situation in Kashmir under control: India must keep the situation in Kashmir under control. Pakistan’s strategy is to keep India engaged with China on the Eastern front while it makes moves to destabilize peace in Kashmir.

Speed up normalisation in Kashmir: A division of security-military resources will only aid the China-Pakistan nexus. Hence, speeding up the pace of normalisation in Kashmir and restoring full political rights through elections must be treated as priority.

– Elections in Kashmir: For elections to take place, the delimitation exercise must be completed soon.

Stability and peace in Kashmir will ensure that India will be able to focus its full attention to the China problem.

Partnering with US and QUAD: Dealing with China will require India to partner more closely with the US and Quad.

Source: This post is based on the article “China challenge: India must stabilise Kashmir to counter Beijing’s multi-pronged strategy in the east” published in TOI on 7th Nov 2021.