• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Saturday, February 4, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Sino-Indian Relations Back on ‘Right Track’ After Months of Tension

Jinghong Chen by Jinghong Chen
09/06/17
in Featured, World
china-india, doklam border

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: AP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

As tensions between North Korea and the United States continued to dominate the headlines last week, a quieter months-long conflict between China and India was just resolved.

On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held official talks after a BRICS summit of emerging economies in Xiamen, China.

The talks came during a months-long military standoff in the Doklam border that was one of the most serious confrontations between the two countries in decades.

The dispute on the Doklam plateau began in mid-June after a Chinese road-building party entered the Doklam territory that is claimed both by China and Bhutan. India then sent in troops to assist Bhutan, claiming that China’s military existence threatened the security of India.

The Doklam territory is of strategic importance, as it overlooks the Siliguri Corridor which bridges India’s remote northeastern provinces and the rest of the nation.

“This time, China considered the ridge on which a road was constructed as its own territory, while for India and Bhutan affirmed that it was Bhutanese territory,” Claude Arpi, the Field Marshal KM Cariappa Chair of Excellence of the United Service Institution of India, told The Globe Post. “It was also the first time that India intervened militarily to defend a neighbor. This greatly infuriated China.”

Beijing responded that New Delhi has no right to intervene and called for a unilateral troop withdrawal.

In the early August, China’s defense ministry said in a statement: “No country should underestimate the Chinese military’s confidence in and ability to fulfill its mission of safeguarding peace, and should not underestimate the Chinese military’s determination and will to defend the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”

At the time, there were approximately 300 soldiers on each side facing each other from a distance of about 150 meters.

“The difficulty was to avoid an armed conflict which would not have benefited anybody; at the same time, none of the [countries] was ready to lose face,” Mr. Arpi said.

On August 28, India and China agreed to withdraw troops to end the dispute. The Indian government said that it had agreed to an “expeditious disengagement” along the border, pulling its troops from the territory.

Neither Beijing nor New Delhi mentioned whether the construction of the road near the border, which triggered the standoff, would be halted.

“Ultimately, China and India have to live together; it is in the interest of both nations to have a peaceful border,” Mr. Arpi said. “Though India’s and China’s final statement differed, this point is agreed by both parties.”

The two countries, which hold 36 percent of the world’s population, agreed to move on from the dispute and maintain “healthy, stable ties” in the fundamental interests of both nations.

“China and India should stick with the fundamental judgment that both can provide development opportunities for each other and neither should pose threats toward each other,” Mr. Xi said during Tuesday’s meeting, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

India’s Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also said in a press briefing that both leaders wanted to prevent the recurrence of similar standoffs.

“Both sides agreed that there should be better communication and cooperation so that such occurrences don’t happen again,” he said.

Yet Mr. Arpi suggested that similar disputes might occur again as there are several differences of perceptions about the Line of Actual Control along the Sino-Indian border. The maps of these perceptions have never been exchanged.

“An exchange of maps could be a first step to more permanently diffuse the situation. China is apparently opposed to it,” Mr. Arpi said. “This said, many mechanisms exist to avoid such situation, particularly the Border Personnel Meeting. They worked relatively well, though their limitations were apparent.”

ShareTweet
Jinghong Chen

Jinghong Chen

Related Posts

A woman undergoing COVID test in China
Featured

Soaring Covid Cases Shine Light on China’s Healthcare Gap

by Staff Writer
January 11, 2023
Members of the Muslim Uyghurs minority demonstrate
World

EU to Ban Products Made Using Forced Labor, Risking China Anger

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
China Uyghurs
World

US Says UN Report Shows Xinjiang ‘Genocide’ as China Irate

by Staff Writer
September 1, 2022
A demonstrator sprays paint over an upside-down portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping
World

China Use of Psychiatric Hospitals to Punish Activists ‘Widespread:’ Report

by Staff Writer
August 17, 2022
Nancy Pelosi
World

Taiwan Defiant as China Readies Military Drills Over Pelosi Visit

by Staff Writer
August 3, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy
Featured

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 5, 2022
Next Post
Turkey prisons, Gulen movement, purge victims, gulenists

Turkey Is Building 50 New Prisons For Gulenists

DACA, protest, dreamers

Ending DACA: Too Many Losses For US

Recommended

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post