India repelled a Chinese military insurgency in contested Himalayan territory in 2022 thanks to unprecedented U.S. intelligence sharing, according to U.S. News and World Report.
A Dec. 9 clash between the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian military resulted in a Chinese retreat. “They were waiting. And that’s because the U.S. had given India everything to be fully prepared for this” a source told U.S. News and World Report.
The U.S. provided India with real-time info on Chinese troop movements, including satellite imagery, marking the the most detailed and fastest intelligence-sharing operation between the two countries, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The conflict involved hundreds of Chinese troops wielding spiked clubs and tasers, but was limited to a few injuries and no deaths, unlike the last conflict in this region in 2020 where dozens of Indian and Chinese troops died in the Galwan River.
That conflict was fought before the U.S. and India signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in Oct. 2020. The intelligence sharing pact signaled a new era of cooperation between the two nations, and though it has been in effect since 2020, this is the first time the follow-through of actionable intelligence sharing has been observed, according to U.S. News and World Report.
U.S. News and World Report also shared a separate intelligence assessment. This one is “considered of lower reliability than the first,” but shares a potential motive for the timing of the Chinese incursion. The assessment says the Chinese paid particular attention to a series of joint exercises between the U.S. and India at the base of India’s second tallest mountain, Nanda Devi. The exercises concluded with the promotion of four officers at the base of the mountain and a spontaneous open-air rock concert. The events in late November and early December directly preceded the Chinese attack on Dec. 9th.
In full view of Nanda Devi, the second-tallest mountain in the tallest mountain range in the world, Capt. Cerruti, Lt. Russell, Lt. Brown and Lt. Hack became the first four @USArmy Officers to be promoted in the Himalayas during Yudh Abhyas Exercise.@USArmy .@USARPAC_CG pic.twitter.com/2ICcBcj7Ju
— U.S. Army Pacific (@USARPAC) November 27, 2022
The cooperation caught Beijing “off-guard” and is forcing them to reconsider their land grab strategy in the region, according to U.S. News and World Report.