GEO-POLITICAL AND GEO-STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE OF LADAKH: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
The present paper examines geo-political and geo-strategic significance of Ladakh in the light of the ongoing border dispute between India and China. Ladakh has been described as a constellation of villages within the “crossroads of Asia. Ladakh holds immense significance for India from the economic, security and strategic perspective point of view. In Ladakh, India shares borders with two of its unfriendly and aggressive neighbors, China and Pakistan. Its border with China is in the Leh district, and its border with Pakistan crosses through Kargil and the Nubra Valley. India shares a disputed border with China in Ladakh which regularly sees transgressions by the PLA forces in the last many years. Ladakh gained geopolitical significance in the 1940s due to partitioning disputes with Pakistan to the north, and, since the 1960s, China to the east. However, the 1950s marked the beginning of Chinese expansionist designs in Ladakh.
Geo-Strategic, Ladakh, India, China, Pakistan, Border Dispute