Date
10/22/2024 3:17:09 PM
(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
The disengagement at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China is a welcome development and has brought to an end four years of tense standoff between the two Asian giants. The development not just defuses a dangerous flashpoint but also opens the door to the normalization of ties between two neighbours. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday that the two countries had reached an understanding and that India would be able to resume patrolling to the areas it controlled before the border tension began in 2020. Jaishankar said that the diplomacy was needed to manage the“double rise” of the two Asian powers.
The current face-off began in March 2020 when People's Liberation Army staged incursions at five along the Line of Actual Control – Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Hot Springs, Demchok and Depsang. The standoff was the bitterest since the 1962 war. This time China aggressively asserted its claim to its side of the LAC and also captured strategic areas in Galwan Valley,
Hot Springs and Gogra besides trying to push in along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. On June 15 in 2020, twenty Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers were killed in a skirmish in Galwan Valley. This was the first time in more than five decades that India suffered so many casualties in a clash with China along the LAC.
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The de-escalation is good for the region as this will bring the Asian giants closer to each other, a need of the hour in the evolving geopolitics. It comes just in time for the BRICS summit in Russia which will be attended by prime minister Narendra Modi and Chinese president Xi Jinping. The end of the border standoff will pave the way for the meeting between the two leaders. The friendship between the two countries is the need of the hour. The world is becoming more and more multilateral as the US-led western dominance is showing signs of ebbing with each passing year. The US has staked everything in the ongoing Ukraine war to prolong its unipolar moment in history. And in this geopolitical flux, India has maintained an independent foreign policy. Rather than join the western camp, India has sought to play a mediatory role in resolving the Ukraine crisis. It has pursued its global policies while keeping its core interests in mind and steering clear of joining any geopolitical camp. This creates space for a viable India-China relationship. That said, a lot will depend on China's behaviour in the near future. We can only hope that the communist power sticks to the path of dialogue and gives precedence to sorting out the issues peacefully than unilaterally changing the facts on ground.
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