Grey Zone – India and Neighbors

First question comes, what is grey zone? The Gray zone is a hypothetical place between war and peace. This zone is generally targeted by the adversities of a country using fault lines to create a disturbance or a sort of hindrance in the development of that particular country. Grey zone warfare is generally used by the country when it prefers not to use military but other weapons like psychological warfare, Economic warfare, creating disturbance in political system of that particular country. It is very much different from the conventional warfare and kinetic/non kinetic warfare.

When it comes to India it is surrounded by two hostile neighbors Pakistan in the West End China in north and East. We all have witnessed the expansionist policies of China in Indian subcontinent, South China sea, Europe and Africa. Due to which Pakistan now has become the vassal state of China and in future it will be known as western China because of the excessively increasing debt. Recently it is seen that China took over the only International Airport of Uganda as it was the part of Chinese checkbook diplomacy where Chinese government provides a huge amount of loan to these countries which resulted in non-repayment of these loans and with certain undisclosed closure of the agreement which in turn losing a particular land of that country on which China has invested.

What are the concerns of India? China have intruded Indian borders many times. We already had a war with China in 1962 in which we lost due to some political and leadership decision which in turn started strengthening the Indian side of Chinese border. Skirmishes happened many times in past like Doklam but major change is seen after Galwan valley clash of June 2020. World is witnessing hegemonic power of China, for India it is a matter of huge concern for neighboring countries.

1. Pakistan: It is trapped under the debt trap policy of China, most of the investment is done by China in Baluchistan, and Baluchi people are protesting against the current government of Pakistan because of their fishing rights which now are transfer to Chinese trawlers. China heavily invested in China Pakistan economic corridor which connects Gwadar port of Pakistan and Xinxiang province of China through Pakistan occupied Kashmir which is an integral part of India.

2. Sri Lanka: it also been through the turmoil. Recently it was on the verge of exhausting all the foreign reserves at that time India signed a Trincomalee oil tanks deal which in turn reviving its economy. They have already tasted the Chinese loan medicine. China also revised its Concessional trade scheme as Lankans do not have money to buy goods from China but those are important for the lively hood of Sri Lanka e.g., appliances, clothes, plastic and other basic things.

3. Bangladesh: After the 1st wave if covid 19 India promised Bangladesh to provide essential items and vaccines but till the time of completion of consignments India is hardly stroked by 2nd wave and deal got failed but taking the advantage of it. China supplied them. It was unfortunate failure of the govt and defamed the soft power of India.

4. Nepal: It has also changed its color under the umbrella of China as the political leaders were the puppet of Chinese political party. They fake claimed some parts of Uttarakhand like Kala Pani. They altered their political map and passed resolution in their parliament.

5. Bhutan: China keeps its Salami Slicing technique going on neighboring nations and Bhutan also witnessed many incidents of it as China keeps on changing the names of places and show them on their map. Being a of a small nation, pacts and cordial relations with India, it is India’s responsibility to ensure security of the nation.

6. Myanmar: It’s been a year in February that Myanmar is under control of military junta. All the political leaders are detention. This kind of regime is cake for China as it hates democracy. It lies in the golden triangle area which is prominent in drug trafficking, smuggling etc. concern is that north eastern states share border with it which is the 5th largest land frontier border and prominent in naxalism and insurgency. Defense forces of India are very active in this region as these miscreants are supported by adversities.

Maritime neighbours like Brunei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea, have huge territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea. Taiwan’s existence itself is a dispute. These countries are eager to help out any responsible nation taking on China. It also hampering the relation between the Indo-Rusia relations. Wolf warrior diplomacy is seen with the USA and China is clearly challenging the global power of United States of America. It is matter of huge concerns for India whether it is about neighborhood countries, central Asian nations, Africa, Europe or America.

India should start giving the answer to China in its language just spectating only won’t make India a global and super power. China talks about multipolar world but believe unipolar world. As of now India have seen many skirmishes and gained so much of experience now it started taking some proactive steps countering China like building road infrastructure at borders, defense procurement on emergency basis, starting trails of IAC Vikrant, deploying S-400 triumph missile system on borders. Also, it started tightening the loose ends between neighborhood nations. QUAD meetings have also started and promoting rule based international order and open, free and prosperous Indo-pacific.

For Indian ocean island nations India started SAGAR – security and growth for all in the region which ensure collective responsibility of the nations to make prosperous IOR. India can also hit the China on the weak vein by raising voice on Taiwan, Uighurs, fundamental rights of Chinese people by supplying arms to ASEAN nations and inviting them to make QUAD+ group with clear goals to counter China.