With its String of Pearls strategy, China over the years planned a complete encircling policy against India. With the debt trap port capturing diplomacy, China built dual-use ports in India’s neighbourhood. The recent arrival of a spy ship in Hambantota port was the end result of its aggressive policies. Although India completely destroyed the communication system of the spy ship, China’s presence in the neighbourhood remained a security threat to the nation. Thus, it becomes imperative to not only secure India’s sovereignty but also give China the taste of its own medicine.
So, to counter the modern imperial China, India launched a comprehensive ‘Necklace of Diamonds’ strategy. From the Indian Ocean to Central Asia and the Pacific Ocean to the Arabian Sea, India made a huge counter-push against China. Now, this latest move by India is bound to give Jinping night terrors.
Rajnath Singh’s Visit to Mongolia
In India’s grand Necklace of Diamond strategy, Mongolia, the immediate neighbour of China, forms the critical part. Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia provides a great geostrategic advantage to India. In consonance with the geopolitical advantages, India over the years has made a significant presence in the country and the recent visit of India’s defence minister further intensified the position.
According to reports, Rajnath Singh, the Defence Minister of India, is on an official visit to Mongolia. As Rajnath Singh became the first Indian Defence Minister to visit the country, the move has significant geopolitical implications. The two countries “discussed effective and practical initiatives to further expand bilateral defence engagements and deliberated on regional and global issues of mutual interest”.
The defence ministers of both countries reaffirmed their commitment to fully implement the Strategic Partnership based on mutual trust and understanding, common interest and shared values of democracy and rule of law. As Rajnath Singh inaugurated the Cyber Security Training Centre built with India’s assistance, the two countries also made progress talks on the ongoing Oil Refinery Project that is being built with India’s assistance.
India-Mongolia Strategic Relation
The diplomatic relations were established in 1955. Mongolia considers India a spiritual neighbour. During PM Modi’s first visit in 2015, Mongolia declared India a strategic partner. This visit is an extended process for India to strengthen strategic relations expanding over joint working groups, military to military talks, capacity building and training programmes.
With a $1 billion line of credit, India announced to help Mongolia in infrastructure development. Further, the militaries of the two countries hold an annual military exercise called ‘the Nomadic Elephant’ to enhance the interoperability of the respective armies.
Shivering China
The strategic cooperation between India and Mongolia has shivers down China’s spine. Like other neighbours, China’s relationship with Mongolia is also in a bad state. Inner Mongolia, which traditionally was part of mainland Mongolia, remained a disputed territory between the two countries. In its independence movement, the Mongols of the disputed territory continued to fight against China to free the land. In response to that China has constantly suppressed the voice of Inner Mongolians which has also been the core reason for tensions.
The growing India-Mongolia bonhomie will pose a serious threat to China’s security. As India cements its strategic cooperation, any miscalculation on part of China with any of the two countries will have negative implications.
China is constructing a 2,600-kilometer Power of Siberia-2 pipeline, which delivers Europe-bound natural gas from western Siberian Russian fields to China transiting through Mongolia. The plan has been made after the Ukraine war as Russian energy giant Gazprom looks to route its energy to Asia. The Power of Siberia-2 capacity is to deliver 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China.
The intense security presence of India in Mongolia will always keep a security cloud over the pipeline. As the pipeline passes through Mongolia, India will have a strategic advantage to choke energy supply to China in case of any war-like conditions. It is pertinent to understand that amid Russia’s focus on Ukraine, China has transgressed along its norther-eastern border. True to its behaviour, China looks to eat the territory of Russia. Aware of Chinese aggression, Russia will never side with China in any condition.
Further, even if Russia stays neutral, the influence that the country maintains in central Asia will be sufficient to choke the other route of energy supply to China. As in the case of choking the supply chain through the Strait of Malacca and Mongolia, the only route through which China can import energy is Central Asia.
Moreover, securing the military access to Sabang Port in Indonesia, India has almost choked out the Chinese large chunk of trade and crude along the Malacca Strait. In addition to this, almost every China’s neighbour is building strategic relations with India. They made various defence deals to buy India’s Brahmos, LCA Tejas and other military hardware. Advancing with the comprehensive Necklace of Diamonds strategy, India’s strategic presence in Mongolia will completely encircle China.
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