After several weeks of tension, the standoff between India and China took a new turn in Ladakh. This border region is indeed hotly contested by the two Asian giants, each of them believing that “Little Tibet” is located on its soil. According to the Indian army spokesperson, a violent confrontation occurred and claimed lives on both sides, deploring the death of an officer and two soldiers on the Indian side. For his part, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the press that the Indian troops severely violated the bilateral consensus on June 15 and crossed the border twice, before engaging in illegal activities and to provoke and attack Chinese soldiers, resulting in a serious physical confrontation.
If the two camps had the opportunity to confront each other directly, it was because their troops were on the move, thanks to a process of military disengagement. Negotiated these days, it was intended to gradually withdraw the thousands of soldiers who, since the beginning of May, have gathered in the region. But it does not happen without bumps: clashes with punches, stones and sticks between soldiers from the two countries. These incidents left several people injured. If it has worsened in recent days, the crisis between the two countries remains solidly anchored for decades. India and China have indeed had longstanding territorial disputes in the areas of Ladakh (west) and Arunachal Pradesh (east). Beijing and New Delhi do not even agree on the length of their common border, each with different land claims. India gives the official figure of 3,500 kilometres while the Chinese media use the figure of 2,000 kilometres.

The two countries clashed in a lightning war in 1962, which saw Indian soldiers quickly defeated by Chinese troops, but have had no armed conflict since that date. No bullet has been fired over the disputed border since 1975. However, confrontations in mountainous areas between Indian and Chinese armies have become more frequent in recent years: in 2017, Indian and Chinese soldiers spent more of two months to face each other face to face on a strategic Himalayan plateau in the region of Bhutan. Talks had led to military disengagement from both sides. This new surge of tensions is once again explained by territorial disputes.

How will the border dispute between India and China be resolved? If officially the two parties keep repeating that they want to find a diplomatic solution, the military presence is only increasing on the ground. India thus acknowledged for the first time that it had equalled China in terms of military forces at the disputed border in the Himalayas. The two neighbouring countries have denied each other responsibility for the June 15 clashes in the region of Ladakh (northern India) which have killed at least twenty people in the ranks of the Indian military and unquantified losses on the Chinese side. In order to defuse the tensions, military officials and diplomats from the two countries held discussions. But the situation remains particularly tense because the events have fuelled nationalist fibre in Indian public opinion and generated calls for the boycott of Chinese products.

Dr Nishant A.Irudayadason
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics,
Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune.