INDIA: India's Defence Minister Arackaparambil Kurien Antony pays tribute to the fallen of 1962 war with China

Record ID: 1377025

  • Title: INDIA: India's Defence Minister Arackaparambil Kurien Antony pays tribute to the fallen of 1962 war with China
  • Date: 20th October 2012
  • Summary: NEW DELHI, INDIA (OCTOBER 20, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC) (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIA'S DEFENCE MINISTER, ARACKAPARAMBIL KURIEN ANTONY, SAYING: "Our armed forces are confident they can protect every inch of our borders, land borders, air and sea. And we will vigourously continue to strengthen our capabilities. So, now we are confident, our armed forces will be able to protect our borders in the event of any threat to our national security." INDIA-CHINA BORDER (FILE- 1962) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (ANI-NO ACCESS BBC) INDIAN SOLDIERS PULLING A MILITARY TRUCK SOLDIERS PUSHING A CANNON ON HILL SOLDIERS PULLING THE MILITARY CANNON TWO SOLDIERS AIMING GUNS MILITARY VEHICLES MOVING SOLDIERS STANDING IN A GROUP SOLDIERS COMING OUT OF A BUNKER A SOLDIER ATTACHING MAGAZINE TO A GUN A SOLDIER AIMING WITH THE GUNS SOLDIERS AIMING WITH THE MILITARY CANNON A PLANE HOVERING OVER THE BORDER TWO SOLDIERS WITH PARACHUTES ARMED SOLDIERS WALKING IN THE BORDER AREA SOLDIERS CARRYING BAGS AND CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN MORE SOLDIERS IN THE MOUNTAIN AREA
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2012 20:12
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India
  • Country: India
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8DJJMJ1K6YM36G8VKEELCFQF0
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: India's Defence Minister Arackaparambil Kurien Antony paid tribute to fallen soldiers at the Amar Jawan Jyoti (flame of the martyred soldiers) memorial at India Gate in New Delhi on Saturday (October 20) on the 50th anniversary of the India-China War in 1962.
    For thousands of years, the Chinese and Indian empires were separated by the Himalayas, allowing almost uninterrupted peaceful coexistence.
    But after years of rapid economic growth, the two countries now have the resources to consolidate and patrol their most distant and inhospitable regions.
    China defeated India in the 1962 war over Arunachal and says most of India's Arunachal Pradesh state is part of Tibet.
    For its part, India claims China's isolated Aksai Chin plateau near Kashmir as its own.
    Beijing lays claim to 90,000 sq km (35,000 sq miles) of land in India's north-east and cites the region's cultural affinity with Tibet as evidence that the area forms part of what it calls "southern" Tibet.
    Antony along with the three chiefs of the armed forces and martial of the Air Force, Arjan Singh, laid a wreath at the memorial and stressed the need to strengthen the armed forces to protect Indian borders.

    "Major lessons that we learned were that we have to strengthen our capabilities. We have to strengthen our armed forces to protect our borders, that we are doing. And now, we are now in a position to evolve our armed forces, intelligence agencies and all those who are involved in the protection of our national security that process is now much more in a strong position," said Antony.
    India sees China as backing rival Pakistan. Beijing, on its part, is suspicious of New Delhi's growing ties with the United States.
    China has vastly improved roads and infrastructure on its side, facilitating its military movements, and has placed advanced, nuclear-capable intermediate range missiles in the Tibetan area, according to a 2010 US Department of Defence report. It also has around 300,000 troops there, the report says.
    India is in the midst of a 10-year plan to scale up its own defences in the northeast, in which it will add some 60,000 troops to the 120,000 already in the region and modernise Second World War-era airbases.
    A 20-hour, 500-km (300-mile) rattling drive up to Tawang from the region's biggest city Guwahati provides proof of India's neglect of one of its most strategic border states.
    It still has no airport, power supply is erratic and telecommunications unreliable.
    Most experts agree there is little danger of a conventional war breaking out between India and China, but chances of clashes at the border are a real risk that could make solving the border dispute difficult.
    Frequent meetings between top Chinese and Indian officials, and regular meetings at the border, can help ease the pressure, experts say.
    One of main irritants in India-China relations, and a key part of China's claim to Arunachal, is the presence of the Dalai Lama and his Tibetan government-in-exile in India. China sees the Tawang monastery as a rallying point for the Tibetan struggle.
    But Antony added that he was confident that the armed forces would be able to protect borders in wake of any threat.

    "Our armed forces are confident they can protect every inch of our borders, land borders, air and sea. And we will vigourously continue to strengthen our capabilities. So, now we are confident, our armed forces will be able to protect our borders in the event of any threat to our national security," he said.
    From China's perspective, the border dispute with India is not of the magnitude of Beijing's other military concerns, like the South China Sea issue or the U.S. presence in Asia.
    Indian media often whips up anger at Chinese border incursions, played down by both sides as a natural result of differing perceptions of where the border lies.
    Despite decades of mistrust, China is now India's biggest trade partner. Bilateral trade that soared to $74 billion in 2011 from just a few billion dollars a decade ago underlined the importance of better relations between the Asian neighbours.
  • Copyright Holder: ANI (India)
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