With Prime minister Manmohan Singh scheduled to meet the Chinese Premier Hu Jintao at Brazil-Russia-India-China (Bric) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summits, India has beefed up its military presence along the border with China in the northeast.
Four Su-30 MKI fighter aircraft which landed on Friday at the Tezpur airbase in Assam as part of the defence ministry?s efforts to strengthen up India?s security in that region, were today formally inducted into service. The four air superiority fighter aircraft were scheduled to carry out practice sorties from the Tezpur airbase in the last two days, but could not do so due to bad weather, sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) said. The basing of a Su-30 squadron in Assam is in line with the IAF?s policy of capacity-building along the India-China border. On a long-term basis, there are also plans to station Su-30s at Chabua in Assam, as also at Halwara in Punjab and Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
?Soon, Tezpur will be the base for a full Sukhoi squadron, though the IAF is yet to decide which of its four Su-30MKI squadrons will be placed at the disposal of the Eastern Air Command,? according to the sources.
In fact, Chabua, another fighter base in Assam, is also being readied to host a Sukhoi squadron in the future, they added.
The positioning of the most potent fighter aircraft in the northeast is aimed at strengthening the IAF?s assets closer to the Sino-Indian border.
India?s efforts to have a stronger IAF presence near the Line of Actual Control with China began last year with the Western Air Command activating Advanced Landing Grounds, Daulat Beg Oldi and Chushul, that were dormant since the 1962 Sino-Indian war.
Concurrently with the deployment of the fighter aircraft, the Indian Army too is stepping up its presence along the India-China border in Arunachal Pradesh by posting two additional divisions comprising some 50,000 troops. This follows repeated reports of Chinese incursions in the state, parts of which China has laid claims to.
Soon after taking over office of the defence minister, AK Antony had underscored infrastructure development in the northeast as his priority. The upgradation of various airfields is part of this effort.
?Five air bases?Tezpur, Chabua, Jorhat (Assam), Panagarh (West Bengal) and Purnea (Bihar)?will be upgraded. This will include increasing the length of their runways from 9,000 feet to 11,000 feet,? the official added.
Beijing has given up its territorial claim over the Indian state of Sikkim but still insists that a vast stretch of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to China. Arunachal Pradesh shares a 1,030-km unfenced frontier with China that is defined by the McMahon Line, a notional border called the Line of Actual Control (LAC).