US intel helped India repulse China's PLA incursion in Tawang sector: Report

New Delhi, March 21

The White House has refused to comment on a media report which claimed that India was able to repel a Chinese military incursion in Tawang sector on December 9 last year due to “unprecedented intelligence-sharing” with the US military.

US provided Satellite imagery

• US provided real-time details to India of Chinese positions ahead of the PLA incursion
• Info included actionable satellite imagery & was given more quickly than ever before

The US government for the first time provided real-time details to India of the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion. The information included actionable satellite imagery and was more detailed and delivered more quickly than anything the US had previously shared with the Indian military, claimed the report.

The act caught the PLA off guard, enraged Beijing and appears to have forced the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its approach to land grabs along its borders, said the report in US News.

The basis for the new intelligence-sharing arrangement stems from the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement on Geospatial Cooperation (BECA) signed between India and the US in 2020. It was the fourth military agreement that secured new levels of integration between the two powers in military, logistics, compatibility and security information exchanges.

The clash involving hundreds of troops wielding spiked clubs and Tasers was limited and, more important, a Chinese retreat.

“They (the Indians) 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,” the report quoted a source as stating.