Since May this year when the conflict with China involving Eastern Ladakh came into limelight, as many as 18 rounds of military and diplomatic talks have taken place between the two countries, of which seven are military-level ones. The net outcome so far has been a big zero as China has ‘invented’ at least one point of disagreement or the other in each and every round and without much surprise, there has been a repetition of this tactic in the just-concluded military talks, the 7^th in row. The blueprint China is drawing with care can be gauged without any deep study- to make Ladakh frontier and Arunachal Pradesh the permanently contested militarised zones exactly similar to Jammu & Kashmir. It’s for this reason, all talks as of now have been futile and those in future are going to be very likely the same.

The dual face of the hostile neighbour was exposed for one more time on Tuesday when its foreign ministry attributed the “root cause of tensions” to India’s heightened infrastructure development and military deployment along the border. This is enough to nullify the conciliatory spirit of the joint statement issued by the two defence ministries which said both sides have agreed to continue the exchange of dialogues both via military and diplomatic channels and arrive at an early mutually acceptable solution for disengagement. The main cause of China’s irk is the inauguration of 44 bridges across the border areas which will now play a pivotal role in easing the movement of Indian armed forces in these strategically important areas. Of the total numbers of these bridges having lengths ranging between 30-484 metres, all constructed under challenging topographical conditions, 8 are in Ladakh, 10 in J&K, 2 in Himachal Pradesh, 4 in Punjab, 8 each in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and 4 in Sikkim. The BRO is doing a fine job and as per available data, it has already completed 28 major bridges last year along with 60 Bailey bridges for meeting immediate requirements of armed forces and border population and similar activities are also in full swing. The enormous magnitude of infra building activity of this kind, which has over the decades remained undone has brought deep worries to China. Special discomfort will now be felt by the neighbour as, along with inauguration of the bridges, the Defence Minister has also laid the foundation stone of the 450-metre dual-lane Nechiphu tunnel which would ensure an all-weather connectivity on the road to Tawang in Arunachal.

These are the critical needs which India must work out fast disregarding all the frowns and barks China is routinely making. Talks are almost useless now and what matters most for the country is blazing fast infra build-up across the Indo-China border.