Editorial: Thaw in relations

In a major breakthrough, China confirmed it has reached an agreement with India to end the over four-year long military standoff between the two armies in eastern Ladakh. With the completion of the disengagement process with China, the soldiers of the two nations will be able to resume patrolling along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh the way they had been doing before the border face-off began. Ties between the neighbours nosedived following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the countries in over four decades.

It began with the Chinese military moving thousands of its troops to the areas of the LAC prompting a strong response from the Indian army. It is after prolonged military and diplomatic talks, that the two sides have agreed to disengage from four points, namely the Galwan Valley, the Pangong Lake, Hot Springs, and Gogra in eastern Ladakh.

India pressed for similar disengagement in Depsang and Demchok, and the agreement is said to facilitate patrolling in these areas that were marked by major unresolved issues. The new patrolling pact implies Chinese troops will stop blocking Indian soldiers at the 'bottleneck' region in the strategically located Depsang Plains, around 18 km inside what India considers its own territory and vice-versa. China claims as much as 972 sq km of territory in the Depsang region, which is near its critical Western Highway G-219 connecting Tibet to Xinjiang.

Demchok, the other point of friction, is close to the southernmost point of the LAC in Ladakh, near the state border with Himachal Pradesh. A village in this zone was the site of a Chinese incursion during the 1962 conflict, but PLA troops desisted from venturing beyond it. Demchok also is the first place where China prevented Indian officials from building civic infrastructure, including a road. In the aftermath of the PLA’s multiple incursions into Eastern Ladakh in 2020, China had engaged over 50,000 troops and heavy armour systems along the LAC. Satellite

images showed China constructing bunkers and trenches while setting up tents along Pangong Tso Lake. Beijing had reportedly built a pier on the lake too. The neighbour also beefed up its presence in the LAC’s Eastern sector (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh) by deploying another 90,000 soldiers there.

It must be said that while China has agreed in principle to this pact, it might be a few years before the modalities of patrolling are ironed out. So, New Delhi must revisit its equation with Beijing on the matters of territory and sovereignty on priority. Although China tends to blame the Sino-Indian border conflict on the British Raj and its imperialist legacy, the CPC’s interests and policies vis-a-vis Nepal, which has always remained sovereign and never under colonial rule, belies that posturing. In the past decade, run-ins between the two nations have assumed global significance as the two compete for economic and military dominance in the global south.

India has also benefited from the amplified rivalry between Washington and Beijing, which has prompted New Delhi to build stronger economic and military partnerships with the West.

India must keep its guard up and play to its strengths as Washington is a fair-weather ally to New Delhi, and more focussed on maintaining its global hegemony, while hoping that India turns into a critical cog in the wheel of US’s Indo-Pacific strategy and a footsoldier to contain China.