China-India border stand-off: amid push for fresh talks, a winter of uncertainty

Name: India pushes to build roads near Chinese border, in a bid to boost infrastructure in border areas
Uploaded: 2020-12-22T10:05:55.000Z
Duration: 3 min 6 s
Description: India pushes to build roads near Chinese border, in a bid to boost infrastructure in border areas

Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall make de-escalation of border stand-off via troop withdrawals nearly impossible

Lack of progress in talks between the two sides is also hampering progress toward a resolution

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A soldier of the Indian Border Security Force guards a national highway leading to the Ladakh region. Photo: DPA

Kunal Purohit

Published: 6:05pm, 22 Dec 2020Updated: 9:42pm, 22 Dec 2020

After more than 40 days without any dialogue, Chinese and Indian diplomats met last week in yet another bid to resolve the border stand-off, which is now in its eighth month.

Tens of thousands of troops from both sides are still locked face to face, often just metres away, with no signs of resolution. Friday’s meeting saw both sides agree to maintain “close consultations” at the diplomatic and military levels and to convene again soon.

But there is now a larger danger looming that veterans and insiders believe would make an early resolution to the conflict improbable – a harsh winter.

In the Himalayan region of Ladakh, where the stand-off is playing out, temperatures have dipped below minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit), with local sources saying that a heavy blanket of snow covers most terrain. Most major roads on the Indian side are either blocked by snow already or have restricted movement – including two of the main highways connecting the region to the rest of the country.

This will have implications for talks between the two sides.

India and China have both been aiming for disengagement – a process to increase the distance between troops deployed at the most forward position – and then to de-escalate, which would mean reducing the number of soldiers as well as arms from the forward areas. Military veterans who have served in the area believe that it is now nearly impossible to withdraw troops because of the logistical nightmares involved in such a move.

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India pushes to build roads near Chinese border, in a bid to boost infrastructure in border areas

Amid this, tensions between the two countries continue to rise. Last week, India took its first steps in banning Chinese equipment from the country’s telecoms networks by insisting that the government would make a list of “trusted sources for equipment”. On Monday, Indian media reports said a group of Chinese soldiers had recently crossed over in Nyoma village and went back after local residents objected.

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