Construction along Indian border ‘provocative’: US

Washington, November 29

An influential US lawmaker has expressed concern over reports of China’s continuing construction activities along the Indian border in Ladakh, saying if the reports are true, it is a “provocative measure” on the part of Beijing and fits the pattern of its conduct in the South China Sea.

India and China have been locked in a military standoff along the LAC.

Both countries have deployed a large number of troops along the LAC. Multiple rounds of talks between the two sides to resolve the standoff have not yielded any concrete outcome. “If it (reports) turns out to be true, it would be yet another provocative measure by the Chinese military to change the facts on the ground,” Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said. “It would also fit the pattern of their conduct in the South China Sea, where they build islands, where they try to change the facts as we previously understood them, and they would be deeply disturbing, to say the least,” said Krishnamoorthi, the first-ever Indian-American on the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. — PTI