On Wednesday, Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi released a statement condemning China’s new legislation that legitimises and strengthens its response to border threats. This comes amid political and military-level talks between the two countries that have failed to deescalate the situation in key areas along their common border.
Bagchi said that the law could be detrimental to the long-standing border dispute between the two countries, expressing concern that the legislation could be used to justify the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s troops’ incursions and attacks along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Therefore, he urged the Chinese side to refrain from taking any unilateral actions that could alter the status quo along the LAC. He also said that the Indian side hopes that the law would not impact the arrangements made by the two sides in the interest of achieving a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” solution to the border dispute.
“Such unilateral move will have no bearing on the arrangements that both sides have already reached earlier, whether it is on the boundary question or for maintaining peace and tranquillity along the LAC in India-China,” he noted. Furthermore, he said that the law doesn’t provide any legitimacy to the China-Pakistan “Boundary Agreement” of 1963 through which Pakistan illegally handed over the Shaksgam Valley of Aksai Chin to China. Bagchi clarified that India maintains that the agreement was “illegal and invalid.”
There has been no response to India’s comments on the new legislation from the Chinese side.
The law in question, titled the Land Borders Law, empowers the state to take “measures to safeguard territorial integrity and land boundaries and guard against and combat any act that undermines territorial sovereignty and land boundaries.” Further, the law permits the government to “build basic facilities for the purposes of blockade, transportation, communication, monitoring, deterrence, defence and assistance when needed.”
This is particularly concerning for India, as the two countries have been engaged in a 17-month long standoff along the LAC. In fact, it was passed just two weeks after the failure of the 13th round of military talks between India and China. Each side blamed the other for the failure of the talks and the continued troop presence.
Amid these escalating tensions, India successfully tested the Agni-V missile, which has a 5,000 km range, for the eighth time. A release by the Indian Ministry of Defence read: “A successful launch of the Surface to Surface Ballistic Missile, Agni-5, was carried out on October 27, 2021 at approximately 1950 hrs from APJ Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha. The missile, which uses a three-stage solid-fuelled engine, is capable of striking targets at ranges up to 5,000 kilometres with a very high degree of accuracy.” Furthermore, the statement said that the test was in compliance with India’s “credible minimum deterrence” and “No First Use” policies.
The Agni series of missiles are capable of releasing nuclear weapons from the air, through fighter jets like Rafale and Mirage 2000 H, and sea, through submarines like INS Arihant. The missiles engulf even the most northern parts of China within its “strike envelope.”