India ready for talks with China to end border stand-off, but Beijing digs in heels
India on Thursday said it was ready to hold talks with China about both sides pulling back their forces to end the stand-off in the Himalayas, but Beijing has insisted its rival withdraw troops first.
The two sides have been locked in an escalating confrontation for more than a month in the southernmost part of Tibet in an area also claimed by Indian ally Bhutan. The crisis was triggered when Chinese teams began building a road onto the Doklam Plateau, known as Donglang in Chinese.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament in New Delhi that a 2012 agreement required China and India to settle the boundary issue with Bhutan. “If China unilaterally changes the status quo of the tri-junction, it becomes a matter of security concern for India,” she said, referring to the area where the three countries meet.
The Chinese foreign ministry has said the road work was being carried out on own territory, and urged India to pull back troops “promptly and unconditionally”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Indian troops had illegally entered Chinese territory.
Liu Youfa, the former Chinese consul general in Mumbai, on Wednesday told China Global Television Network there were only three options for the Indian forces: withdrawal, captivity, or death. “When people in uniform get across the border to move into the territory of the other side, they naturally become the ‘enemies’, who will have to face three consequences,” Liu said. The first scenario was “the best result for both sides to avoid an eventual confrontation”.
Ni Lexiong, a Shanghai-based military affairs commentator, said Beijing was unlikely to accept New Delhi’s demand to stop road construction as that would set a precedent for other countries to oppose other controversial projects China was carrying out, such as man-made islands in the South China Sea. “So China has demanded India pull back before any talks can take place,” Ni said.
Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy, a research associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, said New Delhi viewed the road construction as worsening mistrust among the neighbours. “China’s ‘my way or the highway’ approach has complicated problems further,” he said.
Sun Shihai, an adviser to the Chinese Association for South Asian Studies, said the two sides should be wise enough to look beyond the dispute, identify their core interests and begin talking.
Although China and Bhutan have been negotiating the precise border for decades without serious incident, the tiny Himalayan kingdom turned this time to help from New Delhi, which sent troops across the border from the northeast state of Sikkim, according to India.
China retaliated by closing a nearby mountain pass that Indian pilgrims use to reach Mount Kailash, a sacred Hindu and Buddhist site in Tibet. Beijing has also presented to reporters historical documents it says prove China’s claims to the plateau.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
