It has been reported by the sources that India was able to handle the border crisis due to United States (US’) unprecedented intelligence-sharing. An exclusive report, according to the US News and World Report, titled “US Intel Helped India Rout China in 2022 Border Clash”, claimed the US Government, for the first time, provided real-time details to its Indian counterparts of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of incursions by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang Sector.
The report further adds that the information shared by the Pentagon included actionable satellite imagery and was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the US had previously shared with the Indian military.
The act caught China’s PLA off-guard, enraged Beijing, and appears to have forced the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its approach to land grabs along its borders.
The source quoted in the report seemed familiar with the assessment. In the weeks before the encounter, it asserted that the US Government was fully cognizant that China was carrying out test exercises in the region.
The incident was reportedly termed “a test case” of the success of military-to-military intelligence sharing between two countries by the US intel sources.
US News also stated, “The basis for the new intelligence-sharing arrangement stems from an agreement the Indian and U S Governments signed in 2020 known as the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation, or BECA. It was the fourth agreement that secured new levels of integration between the two powers in military, logistics, compatibility and security information exchanges.” But, its actionable effect has not been reported before.
“They were waiting. And that’s because the US had given India everything to be fully prepared for this. It demonstrates a test case of the success of how the two militaries are now cooperating and sharing intelligence,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying by the daily.
However, the US refused to confirm a news report citing that the US provided crucial intelligence to the Indian military last year that helped it successfully tackle the Chinese at the border. “No, I can’t confirm that,” John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for Strategic Communications at the White House, told reporters at a daily news conference when asked about the news report.
Military ties between India and the United States have grown significantly over the past few years. However, there needs to be more clarity since the US has officially neither confirmed nor further elucidated.
