Border standoff: Why a quick resolution is in the interest of both China and India

and China are not deployed in eyeball-eyeball border camps to assert authority over territory. Instead,military camps of both sides are well into their own territories and troops ‘stake claim’ on the disputed areas by continuous patrols,avoiding any direct contact with the other side. This arrangement has held good for over four decades without any aggression on the border.

The closed things came to a confrontation was in 1986 in a eerily similar fashion a small detachment of Chinese soldiers set up camp in the Sumdorong Chu Valley in the North East. What started as a small incident rapidly deteriorated after India lodged a strong diplomatic

protest and sent in troops to secure the area.

What followed was extensive deployment by the Chinese who increased their force level there to more than a company strength,leading to a spiraling reaction from India. Old timers recall that at the tactical level,Indian deployments were increased rapidly to cover off any ‘progress routes’ for the Chinese and the only path left unoccupied led back to what India considered was Chinese territory.

While the stand off ended with the Chinese troops moving on from the area without setting up a permanent camp,the gravity of the situation was not lost on anyone. Hence the reason for the current stand off being handled in a more diplomatic fashion without a scale up on the

ground by India. It is yet unclear if the standoff is a strategy or a one off tactical aberration. A quick resolution to the issue will make it clear that it was only the latter.

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