In the Doklam area, China has quietly resumed its activities and now neither Bhutan nor India has sought to put off it, a top US official has told the same while comparing Beijing’s actions in the Himalayan region with its manovers which is for the disputed South China Sea.
On the other side, China claims sovereignty over all of South China Sea, which includes, some of the nations, like, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Taiwan.
The China is on the other hand, engaged in hotly contested territorial disputes in both the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Beijing has built up and militarised for the several islands and reefs it controls in the region.
Both areas are stated to be rich in minerals, oil and other natural resources which are also touted as the vital to the global trade.
“I would assess that India is vigorously defending its northern borders and this is a subject of concern to India,” Alice G Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing while responding to a question on China’s increased road building activities along the Indian border.
“As (India) ahead to its own strategic stability, it certainly helps drive and is a factor in driving closer partnership that we enjoy with India,” Ms Wells said in response regarding a question from the Congresswoman Ann Wagner.
Over territories in the Himalayas, India and China have clashed repeatedly. As very currently, Chinese and Indian troops faced off on the disputed Doklam plateau between Bhutan and China after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army which also started building illegally, the roads, through the area, Ms Wagner told the same.
“Although both countries back down, China has quietly resumed its activities in Doklam and neither Bhutan nor India has sought to dissuade it. China’s activities in the Himalayas remind me of its south China Sea policies. How should our failure to respond to the militarisation of the South China Sea inform the international response to these Himalayan border disputes?” Ms Wagner asked.
As the US looks to the Indo-Pacific policy and approach, which put forward by the Trump administration, Ms Wells told it has been taken in light of the ‘South China Sea’s Strategy’.
“How do we maintain the region to be open, to have maritime security, to not have militarisation that would imperil the 70 per cent of global trade?” she asked.
“We need to do that by giving authority to sovereign nations to have choices in how they develop, to have choices in their partnerships,” Ms Wells told.
The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee, Congressman Ted Yoho, raised the issue of China’s aggressive posture in South Asia, on the Asia and the Pacific.
“What are your thoughts on what is the best way to counter China in that region?” Mr Yoho asked.
US should not be seeking to compete with China dollar for dollar, Ms Wells act in response, also added instead of a state lending on terms that perhaps will be towards the benefit of countries or their citizens, the US and its companies are providing $850 billion in foreign direct investment in the region, which is far more than what has been given by the China.
“We’re trying to gather like-minded countries who can bring resources to the table, who can coordinate assistance and an effort so as to provide countries with meaningful alternatives,” Ms Wells said.
in Doklam from 16th June of the last year, 2017, the Troops of India and China were locked in a 73-day-long standoff, post the Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army.
Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam and the face-off was marked its ending on the 28th August.
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