Checking CHINA
When Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar spoke to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on telephone on June 17, he began by pointing out that the border clash on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh had been the most violent they had seen between the two countries since they began their careers as diplomats. Both Jaishankar and Wang are in their mid-60s and had served in their respective foreign services before becoming ministers. The last time a soldier died in a fracas at the LAC was in 1975, two years before Jaishankar joined the Indian Foreign Service. Now, 45 years later, India has reported 20 deaths on a single day, including that of a colonel who was commanding the battalion stationed there. China has so far been mum about casualties on its side, but Wang’s aggressive posture of blaming India for the clash suggested that even Chinese forces had taken a hard hit. Jaishankar charged China with “a premeditated and pre-planned” action that resulted in the casualties and wanted corrective steps to be taken. They ended the conversation by agreeing that both sides will implement the disengagement understanding reached on June 6 when the corps commanders of the two armies had met and agreed to ensure “peace and tranquility”.
Both sides are aware of just how difficult it will be to restore calm on both sides. It will take months, possibly even years. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the two countries have had two major LAC stand-offs: at Demchok in 2014 (even as Chinese president Xi Jinping was paying his first state visit to India) and at Doklam in 2017. Both were peacefully resolved. But with the casualties India has suffered in the current fracas, as a senior Indian official dealing with the situation put it, “China had not just crossed the Galwan line but the Rubicon too”. China’s latest and most blatant aggression on the border is likely to have serious long-term consequences for its relations with India. Ashley J. Tellis, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an expert on Asian strategic issues, predicts: “This will confirm the view of many Indians that China is not just a competitor but now also an adversary. The Chinese have made a major miscalculation. They have lost India as a potential
