The incident at the Galwan Valley is unfortunate and alarming. China is a habitual offender and in the past too, we have seen it taking two steps forward before taking a step backward.
Like the Chinese have made their outposts more accessible with infrastructure development along the Line of Actual Control, India too has started to do the same.
Earlier, the Indian side lacked approach roads to the LAC. Now that they have started building them to connect the Daulat Beg Oldie airbase, the Chinese have been startled.
The escalation of tensions is purely a reaction to Indian activities along the LAC. Also, the Chinese side not disclosing the number of their casualties is a sign that the Indian forces stood up to their aggression.
According to my sources, there have been at least three casualties on the Chinese side, including that of a Battalion Commander.
The ramping up of infrastructure by India is bound to give rise to conflicts like these, but the Indians should be prepared to stand up to them.
Despite the formation of Joint Working Groups and appointment of special representatives to deal with the issue, there has been no fructification of talks.
China had in the 1960s offered a border package deal to settle the issue once and for all. India did not accept it and instead wanted a sector-wise solution.
India shares a border with China in three sectors — eastern, middle and western.
There have been at least 23 rounds of talks between the Chinese and NSA Ajit Doval, but all of them have remained inconclusive. Beijing wants to force New Delhi into solving the dispute on its terms.
Now that the balance of power is tilted heavily in favour of China, they come to the negotiation table with conditions which are rarely acceptable to India.
The Chinese by themselves will not bend to solve the border issue. India should make efforts to bring them to the negotiation table without any conditions.
To do this, Indian should ramp up the infrastructure to make the LAC more accessible. Secondly, the Indian side needs to relook at all the previously agreed upon confidence-building measures.
It is now time for India to replace the mechanism that was in place between 1993-2013 (special representative) and look at China in an all new way — politically, militarily and diplomatically.
B R Deepak
Chairperson, Centre of Chinese & Southeast Asian Studies, JNU