The Geopolitical Cascade Due To Ladakh Standoff
The Morning Standard|June 14, 2021
Beijing is aware that New Delhi is continental in security approach while the actual Indian advantage lies in the maritime domain
LT Gen Syed Ata Hasnain
The Geopolitical Cascade Due To Ladakh Standoff

FOLLOWING up on my article a fortnight ago that reviewed the military situation in Ladakh, there is a need to analyse the geopolitical issues that brought about the standoff that began last year and those that spun off from it. The standoff continues today, albeit with partial disengagement but very little de-escalation. Ladakh may be proximate to the roof of the world but turbulence there has a geopolitical impact far into the oceans and lands more than halfway across the world. Its presence right there in the mountain ranges almost contiguous to Tibet and Xinjiang (China’s soft underbelly) and providing the most optimal overland connectivity to the Indian Ocean (far more stable than what Gilgit-Baltistan does) gives it this strategic importance. China perceives that India’s northern mountain tracts are isolated; within it, Ladakh is even more so. It views this as the ideal pressure point for coercion. However, the northern mountains have an intrinsic connection with the Indian Ocean. India may be threatened up north but it can make China extremely uncomfortable down south in the waters through which flow the latter’s energy shipping lanes as also the container traffic taking finished manufactured goods to various markets—the lifeline of China’s grandstanding economic status. Beijing is aware that New Delhi is continental in its security approach while the actual Indian advantage lies in the maritime domain. It is not easy to alter mindsets as India’s confidence in its maritime strength and quid pro quo capability in the oceans at a fundamentally different level of engagement are understandably low. It is not the Indian Navy that lacks confidence but the nation’s strategic community as a whole. It is this mindset that needs to be overcome as the world moves into geopolitical reset and the center of gravity of US strategic concerns shifts to the Indo-Pacific.

This story is from the June 14, 2021 edition of The Morning Standard.

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This story is from the June 14, 2021 edition of The Morning Standard.

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