Anirban Bhaumik,
India has decided to withdraw from a multilateral military exercise in Russia, apparently in order to avoid taking part in the drill along with China.
New Delhi has conveyed to Moscow its decision to withdraw from the Kavkaz 2020 military drill, which is scheduled to be held in Russia from September 15 to 26. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence on Saturday cited the Covid-19 ‘pandemic and consequent difficulties in exercise, including the arrangement of logistics’ as the reason for rolling back its earlier decision to send troops to participate in the wargames.A source in New Delhi, however, said that the government finally decided to withdraw from the drill in view of the continuing stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in eastern Ladakh.
The government decided that India should not participate in any military drill with China at a time when its soldiers were resisting aggressive and expansionist moves by the communist country along the disputed boundary between the two nations.
The decision to withdraw from the Kavkaz 2020 exercise was taken during a high-level meeting to review the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) – the de facto boundary between India and China in the western sector.
‘The government could not have just turned a blind eye to continued belligerence of the Chinese Army along the LAC. This is not the time when the Indian Army should send troops for a drill which the Chinese Army too will take part in,’ said another source aware of New Delhi’s diplomatic response to the communist country’s expansionist moves along the disputed boundary with India.
New Delhi’s decision to stay away from the military drill to be hosted by the Russian Armed Forces came just days before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to travel to Moscow to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The SCO Defence Ministers’ meeting in the first week of the next month will be followed by a conclave of the Foreign Ministers of the bloc in the capital city of Russia. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is expected to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
India was planning to send a contingent comprising 180 personnel of its army, navy and air force to take part in the multilateral war drill in southern Russia.
Russia has been hosting similar multilateral war drills over the past few years – Zapad 2017, Vostok 2018 and Tsentr 2019.
India sent troops to take part in the Tsentr 2019 exercise last year.
Apart from China, Pakistan is also likely to send troops for the Kavkaz 2020 drill. So are Iran, Turkey and several Central Asian nations.
The stand-off between the Indian Army and Chinese PLA in eastern Ladakh started after the communist country’s soldiers in late April and early May stepped up attempts to alter the status quo along the disputed boundary between the two nations in Galwan Valley, northern bank of the Pangong Tso (lake) and several other locations in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Army too deployed additional troops to respond to transgressions by the Chinese PLA. The stand-off took the relations between the two neighbours to a new low, particularly after the violent clash between soldiers of the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA in Galwan Valley on June 15, with both sides suffering casualties.
The two sides early last month mutually agreed on a phased withdrawal of the front-line troops from the face-off scenes along the LAC. The process of ‘disengagement’, however, remained stalled since mid-July, as the Chinese PLA declined to withdraw troops completely from several face-off points along the LAC, including Depsang Y junction, Gogra Post and the northern bank of the Pangong Tso.
Russia has been publicly maintaining that India and China should resolve the stand-off through bilateral talks. It, however, has been quietly in touch with New Delhi and Beijing and has been trying to defuse tension between the two neighbours.
Keen to make it sure that the decision to opt-out of the Kavkaz 2020 does not strain New Delhi’s relations with Moscow, India on Saturday underlined its ‘close and privileged’ strategic partnership with Russia. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi also pointed out that India had in the past participated ‘in many international events’ on invitation from Russia.
A tri-service contingent of the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force had taken part in the multinational military parade held at Red Square in Moscow on June 24 to mark the 75th anniversary of the erstwhile Soviet Union’s victory against Nazi Germany.
The World News 