‘Regional’ developments push China, India ease border tensions, say experts

ISTANBUL

The developments in the region have pushed China and India to ease border tensions, experts told Anadolu.

Beijing, which has been embroiled in a border dispute since 2020, announced last week that it has defrosted relations with India.

“In recent years, front-line armies of the two countries have realized disengagement in four areas in the Western sector of the China-India border, including the Galwan Valley,” said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry.

Beijing’s statement came after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Russia where the two were attending a BRICS meeting.

The world’s two most populated nations have been engaged in a tussle along the 3,500-kilometer (2,174-mile) long Line of Actual Control (LAC) -- the de facto border between India and China in Ladakh area of disputed Jammu and Kashmir -- since May 2020.

At least 24 soldiers, including 20 from India, were killed in hand-to-hand fighting that year, known as the “Galwan clashes.”

“The China-India border situation is generally stable and under control,” Mao told reporters in Beijing on Sept. 13.

Eventful 4 years

Kallol Bhattacherjee, who specializes in India’s foreign policy, told Anadolu that the last four years have been eventful for China, India as well as the South Asian region, “where a number of sub-theatres have opened up like in Myanmar and Bangladesh.”

“In Myanmar, a civil conflict has sucked in multiple extra-regional players who are creating new security dynamics for both India and China,” said Bhattacherjee, a senior journalist and author.

“These are two of the regional arenas that call upon India and China to work closely shifting the focus from the Line of Actual Control - at least temporarily,” he added.

BRICS provides a "platform to cement past differences and create renewed dialogue between India and China over more pressing concerns," he said, referring to the bloc of emerging economies which also includes Brazil, Russia, South Africa, and other countries.

Russia, which holds the group's rotating presidency in 2024, will hold the 16th BRICS summit in the city of Kazan from Oct. 22 to 24.

Beijing has confirmed the participation of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the summit, while all eyes are on New Delhi whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fly to Kazan or not.

View from Beijing

Besides happenings in the backyard, Beijing-based Asia analyst Einar Tangen told Anadolu, “India is not the Philippines.”

“Washington’s increasing isolation from the ‘rest of the world’ over Gaza, Ukraine, and more proxy conflicts, like the South China Seas, has given Modi leverage to remind Washington that India is not the Philippines,” Einar said from the Chinese capital.

He, however, said a “stand down” by Beijing as well as New Delhi “would decrease tensions.

Pointing to Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar's statement before Modi led a summit-level visit to Moscow in July that the border issue with China “was a priority,” Einar said it raised eyebrows in Washington “which wants India to be a doorstop to China's rise, and in Beijing, which wasn't expecting a charm offensive.”

“There was speculation that this might be an attempt to get Chinese support for India to join the UN P5 which would be difficult to imagine,” he said, noting that “Indian anti-China rhetoric (has) declined.”

Jaishankar has also confirmed 75% of the “disengagement problems” with China along the LAC have been “sorted out” but, he addd, the “bigger issue” was the increasing militarisation of the border.