The Indo-China relations have gone for a toss since India decided to revoke Article 370. Earlier last week the Indian and Chinese troops were involved in a standoff in Ladakh. It has been the first since over a year. Deep Dive with Abhinav Khare tracks the territorial dispute between the two countries.

The Indian Army patrol was moving along the northern bank of Pangong Tso lake, when the Chinese troops objected to their presence. A number of areas of the Pangong lake are disputed. The two sides have since returned to their bases. This is the first face-off since July 2018.

 

What is extremely disturbing to notice is that this stand-off happened just a month before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit China for an informal summit to meet president Xi Jinping in October. In fact, last year when he visited China in April, there were 28 Chinese transgressions into the Indian territory.

While the border areas seem to be more or less incident free, the same cannot be said in diplomatic terms. Ever since India announced that Ladakh shall be a union territory, the Indo China relations have gone south. Both these countries have engaged in a war of words with China openly supporting Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir as it felt that “the parties concerned should exercise restraint and act with caution, especially to avoid actions that unilaterally change status quo and exacerbate the tension”.

However, India has maintained that Kashmir is and always will be an internal matter and the government even reminded China that they should deal with their issues first. In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that China has objections to Ladakh being a union territory of India as they claimed the territory belongs to China. They urged the Indian side "to be cautious in its words and actions on the boundary issue, strictly abide by the relevant agreements reached between the two sides and avoid any move that further complicates the boundary issue".

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India and China share 3488 km of Line of Actual Control between them which have witnessed multiple incidents of tension and transgression and a war in 1962 as well. China and India have since tried to mend their relations especially after the Doklam issue in 2017. 

About Abhinav Khare:

Abhinav Khare is the CEO of AsiaNetNews Network and also the host of a daily show named Deep Dive with AK. AsiaNetNews is a leading media group of south India with highly valuable brands like AsiaNetNews, Suvarna News, Kannada Prabha, IndigoMusic, Indigo Radio, MyNation, NewsFast, IndigoXP Music lounges. 

He is a proud father of two beautiful daughters and resides in Bengaluru with his loving family and a lifetime collection of books and gadgets. An avid traveller, he has already pinged more than hundred cities from 5 major continents around the globe. 

A tech entrepreneur, who is passionate about policy, technology, economy and philosophy from ancient India. His favourite pastime is to research synergy between these facets of society. He earned his qualifications from the top 10 global universities; an MS Engineering from the ETH Zurich and an MBA Finance from the London Business School.