China-India border dispute: there may be a five-point plan but is it enough to bridge differences?
- Suspicion fuels border dispute and border tension fuels mistrust in long and complicated relationship
- Analysts say India’s economic retaliation after skirmish is ‘very grave and unprecedented’
It seemed like there was the start of a way out of clashes that had already claimed the lives of at least 20 Indian soldiers and involved gunfire.
But their differences re-emerged almost immediately.
For decades the two sides have agreed that economic issues should be separate from the dispute but now China sees India muddying that understanding with sanctions against Chinese firms and technologies. At the same time, India sees China as raising the stakes by moving more troops into an area that was previously largely considered a no man’s land.
At the diplomatic level, the two sides appear to be in agreement. On Monday Chinese ambassador to India Sun Weidong said that whenever the situation gets difficult, “it is all the more important to ensure the stability of the overall relationship and preserve mutual trust.”