Ladakh Standoff Is A Sum Of China’s Fears About Aksai Chin Highway, Says Former Corps Commander

NEW DELHI: The current standoff in Ladakh between Indian and Chinese troops should not be looked at in isolation just as a skirmish between two armies, says Lt Gen PJS Pannu, a former Commander of the Leh-headquartered 14 Corps in the latest episode of Strategic Insight, a programme done in association with USI, India’s oldest military think-tank. The Chinese are very sensitive to any infrastructure development that India does which, in their view threatens the Highway G-219 that connects Tibet to Xinjiang. Coupled with the fear over the Aksai Chin Highway being threatened, is India’s decision to create Ladakh as a separate Union territory and China’s own aggression born out of worldwide negative sentiments, that has led to the current situation on the Line of Actual Control, Lt Gen Pannu says in this interaction with StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale.