New Delhi: Despite the Indian Army dismissing media reports that said there is a Doklam-type continued standoff in eastern Ladakh between Indian and Chinese soldiers, the fact of the matter is that the contested border will continue to prick bilateral ties between the world’s two largest armies of the two Asian giants.
While multiple military sources familiar with border operations and tactics have commonly voiced before ETV Bharat that while aggression on the India-China border is a reality, so are incidents of polite amity.
And that aggressive behaviour on both sides has had only an incidental impact at best on the India-China relationship—something both countries try to steady especially after the 73-day-long Doklam standoff across Sikkim in 2017.
On Tuesday, Indian Army spokesperson Colonel Aman Anand stated: “I clarify that there is no continuing faceoff at the Pangong Tso lake, there is no build-up of armed troops in the area…. Incidents of the faceoff and aggressive behaviour occur on LAC (Line of Actual Control)…Troops resolve such incidents mutually as per established protocols. Media speculation and hype based on unsubstantiated statement be avoided.”
But at the same time, the border ‘understanding’ did not mean no problems existed.
Recently, the Chinese government’s mouthpiece ‘Global Times’ in its editorial appreciated the existing border dispute resolution mechanism of the two militaries which ensured “the problem was solved at the local level and did not escalate to a national level”.
However, the editorial understood to reflect the Chinese government’s line of thinking, emphasized that while such “reoccurring minor issues have not yet hurt China-India relations…they may in the future… So we need to find opportunities and work out a fair and reasonable resolution to the border issue as soon as possible.”
Two border ‘incidents’ have taken place in the course of the last few days—one on May 5 (Tuesday) in eastern Ladakh and another on May 9 (Saturday) in northern Sikkim—when soldiers from both sides indulged in fisticuffs and a bout of stone-pelting. Quite a few soldiers from both sides got injured in the two incidents.
The two countries—with 70 years of diplomatic ties—have not been able to agree to a common border over cold and desolate barren stretches of mountains which are patrolled only in summers as in winters they remain buried under snow.
Improvements in roads and modes of transportation in these remote areas also have increased interactions between the two militaries due to which there are many more incidents of warmth as well as of belligerence.
But at the same time, when India has decided to build robust defences in its borders, China has been increasing its military activity in the areas facing India especially in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
China has greatly increased use of military helicopters and aircraft in the TAR bordering India since 2013 which are often sighted on a regular basis across Ladakh. Similarly, combat confrontation military exercises have also increased in number since 2013.
The Indian effort has essentially been to increase its ‘boots on the ground’ by deploying more manpower in the Himalayan region facing China in order to balance out China’s advantage in terms of terrain and geography, military manoeuvrability, abundant firepower and ease of logistics.
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