In an alarming situation for both India and Bangladesh, Chinese boats carrying arms entered Bangladesh waters, and the arms were allegedly smuggled into the country. The top coastguard officials of Bangladesh have come under the scanner as the coastguard ships were curiously missing when this took place, raising suspicion about the role of senior officers. This is the first such major case of China’s intervention in terms of supplying arms ever since Sheikh Hasina’s government handed over multiple insurgent leaders belonging to ULFA to India in 2009.
The smuggled arms have allegedly reached Dhaka, and might be used to create unrest ahead of Jatiya Sangsad elections expected to take place between October 31st and December 31st this year. Interestingly, this incident is the third one in a series of incidents aimed at creating disturbance in Bangladesh. The first cache of arms was allegedly smuggled into the country in December 2016 through the Chittagong port. The incident has an uncanny resemblance to the 2004 incident, when 10 Chinese trucks carrying arms for ULFA & other such groups were seized in Chittagong.
The Bangladesh government has apprised India of the latest development, and it is investigating the role of foreign powers in creating disturbance ahead of elections in Bangladesh. Security establishments of both sides are coordinating closely on this case.
What it means for India
With the NDA deepening its hold on the North Eastern states, the Dragon surely isn’t happy. The Chinese Parliament has removed the two-term limit on Xi Jinping allowing him to rule as long as he wishes. After this declaration, an overwhelmed Xi allegedly tried to send India a message by saying China was ready to “fight the bloody battle” against its enemies (without naming any country) and would not cede a single inch of its territory. This statement comes after the dragon was made to eat crow in Doklam, despite its clandestine connections with the Indian opposition.
Bangladeshi officials suspect that these arms are also meant to disturb India’s northeastern states, which have witnessed relative peace since the Sheikh Hasina government handed over all insurgent leaders hiding in her country to Delhi in 2009.
China is playing a major role in reviving the insurgency in the Northeast, with separatist organization ULFA and the Chinese state-run arms factory North Industries Corporation(NORINCO) providing arms to the separatist organization.
Game of Thrones in The Indian Ocean
China has already acquired two ports in Sri Lanka after landing the latter in heavy debts of around $1.5 billion. Sri Lanka’s ports of Colombo and Hambantota are supposedly being used as trade ports by China but one can never be sure. In the past four years, Chinese submarines have begun suddenly and repeatedly showing up in the Chinese-operated South Container Terminal in the port of Colombo.
The Hambantota port was offered to India for rebuilding initially by the Rajapaksa government in 2010, but the Congress government showed little interest, opening the doors for China.
A Chinese naval contingent ‘Blue 2018A’ has been deployed in the East Indian Ocean for stints of over one week when the Maldives is undergoing a political crisis, according to a Chinese website called sina.com.cn. China had earlier warned against external intervention in the Maldives after the country’s exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed called for New Delhi’s intervention to release political prisoners.
In the beginning of February, a Chinese naval task force had entered the Indian Ocean from the Sunda Strait for exercises in international waters closer to Australia, and has since left via the Lombok Strait.
Indian Navy Spokesperson Capt. D.K. Sharma has already clarified our stance without getting into the specifics: “Indian Navy has robust maritime domain awareness and we have a clear picture of the happenings in the Indian Ocean Region.”
With the latest cheap tactic of infiltrating Bangladesh and arming the North-East separatist groups, China continues its efforts to encircle India in the disguise of Maritime Road and Economic belt. It must be reminded that we do not have a UPA central government anymore. It is an NDA government which knows how to tame the dragon!