Standoff near Sikkim

In the sharpest rebuke yet to Indian claims that Beijing was undertaking a road project near Sikkim, the Chinese foreign ministry and media sounded off its neighbour on Wednesday against misleading the world. The territory where the road work is being carried out is a part of Chinese territory — and the treaty signed by China and Britain in 1890 does recognise that fact. Beijing has also contested Delhi’s claim that the move would gradually block Delhi’s access to seven of its northeastern states. The two countries have been at loggerheads over the land border for decades. Interestingly the current dispute is technically more of a dispute between Bhutan and China than India and China. But since India has a military presence in Bhutan it finds itself in the eye of the storm. Though Bhutan is closely allied with India, it has no formal diplomatic relations with China.

It is highly unusual for Beijing to respond directly to such developments but given the nature of the allegations and the standoff involving army units of the two countries on June 16 in the Dokalam area purportedly at the confluence of Tibet, India and Bhutan, it was inevitable. Chinese Ambassador Luo Zhaohui has made it clear that Indian troops would have to pull back from the area, ruling out the possibility of a compromise. The official Chinese media cautioned that if India did not withdrew its troops from the area it would be taught a lesson and be kicked out from there in humiliation. The Global Times went a step further, warning that Delhi would now potentially face more losses than in the 1962 war — a jibe that was provoked by the Indian defence minister who urged China not to take his country lightly in this day and age.

The row appears to be quite serious and comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Germany. Before the situation gets out of hand the diplomatic and military authorities of the two countries ought to find an amicable solution. Fast.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2017.

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