By Will Davies
- Ministry of Defense India/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
- The landing of the C 130J-30 Super Hercules.
The ministry said the aircraft touched down at 6:54 a.m. Tuesday at Daulat Beg Oldie, the highest airstrip in the world at 5,065 meters above sea level. The airstrip is in the disputed border area of Aksai Chin and was built during the 1962 conflict with China.
After winning the 1962 war, China gained control of a large area of land in Jammu and Kashmir, but Indian maps show Aksai Chin as part of the northern Indian state. China also lays claim to land in Arunachal Pradesh, in India’s northeast.
Bilateral relations were tested in April when Chinese troops encamped for three weeks in Ladakh, a region in Jammu and Kashmir.
In its statement Tuesday, India’s defense ministry said the deployment of the aircraft, which is made by Lockheed Martin and has a payload of just under 20 metric tons, would help better meet the requirements of land forces in high and inhospitable areas. Daulat Beg Oldie was operational until 1965 but then closed for 43 years.
Further south Tuesday, in the capital Delhi, the fifth India-China Strategic Dialogue took place. “Maintaining peace and tranquility” in the India-China border areas was among the issues discussed, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said.
At previous talks in May, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang played down the April incursion after Mr. Li arrived in Delhi on his first trip overseas since taking office. While there is still a sense of distrust between the neighbors, both sides recognize the benefits of greater cooperation and aim to increase bilateral trade volume to $100 billion by 2015 from $70 billion last year.
Much of the trade flows from China to India, however. Last year, India’s trade deficit with China was nearly $40 billion.
The growing trade deficit was also among the issues discussed during Tuesday’s Strategic Dialogue in Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs said. Other topics included utilization of trans-border river waters and expanding scientific and technological cooperation, the ministry said. India’s Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin led the talks.
In its statement Tuesday, the defense ministry described the airstrip Daulat Beg Oldie as an important army forward post. It is also the highest in the world, and an aircraft the size of a Super Hercules had never landed there before.
“This achievement qualifies for the world record for the highest landing by an aircraft of this class,” the Ministry of Defense said in its statement.
“With this enhanced airlift capability the IAF will now be in a better position to meet the requirements of our land forces who are heavily dependent on the air bridge for sustenance in these higher and inhospitable areas,” it added.