Did US help India push back China in Tawang? Unconfirmed report adds new dimension to geopolitics

A stunning US News report claims that the US shared crucial real-time intelligence with India last year which helped successfully push back the Chinese “incursions” in the Himalayas. The report claims a Chinese Chinese military incursion in the high Himalayas was repelled by India late last year because of unprecedented intelligence-sharing with the US military.

On December 9, the Indian and Chinese troops engaged along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh. The clash led to "minor injuries to a few personnel from both sides".

Refusing to give anything away, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House John Kirby told reporters, “No, I can't confirm that.” Nevertheless, the report adds a new dimension to the ongoing tense relationship between India and China as well as China and the US. 

Why is it significant?

The White House has said it “can’t confirm” the intriguing news report of “unprecedented” intelligence-sharing that caught China off guard. But the idea of sheerly coming into existence adds a whole new dimension to geopolitics. The Indian response, aided by the "US intelligence sharing", reportedly caught the People's Liberation Army of China off-guard and aggravated Beijing. More significantly, it adds that the act appears to have forced China to rethink its approach towards land grabbing along its borders.

"The US government for the first time provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion," the report claimed citing a source familiar with a previously unreported US intelligence review of the Arunachal face off. 

"The information included actionable satellite imagery and was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the US had previously shared with the Indian military," the report reveals. It led to “most conspicuously” a Chinese retreat, it adds.

"They were waiting. And that's because the US had given India everything to be fully prepared for this. It demonstrates a test case of the success of how the two militaries are now cooperating and sharing intelligence," the news report quoted an anonymous source. 

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(Inputs from PTI)