Finally better sense seems to have prevailed as China and India have agreed to end a lengthy standoff at the Sikkim border that began in June. Both the sides are reportedly moving to withdraw their troops from the remote Doklam Plateau, a region that both China and Bhutan claim. The standoff began in mid-June after Chinese troops started building a road on the Doklam plateau. Indian soldiers rushed to stop that, triggering the worst military tension in decades with China. The breakthrough comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China in a few weeks for a summit of the BRICS group of nations.
There was growing fear that stand-off could lead to escalation of tension. During the tensed period media on both the sides indulged in provocative rhetoric against each other. The de-escalation of tension should make way for constructive dialogues between two nations to resolve the outstanding issues. India and China have differences of opinion and view on several issues. The border row is yet to be resolved and China still claims whole of Arunachal Pradesh as part of south Tibet. The border standoff like the one witnessed in Doklam might again take place in future. There is a need to put in mechanism to resolve such issue at the earliest before situation goes out of control. Both India and China should learn a lesson from Doklam incident and do not allow such incident to repeat in future. The two nuclear armed nations will have to learn to live together even though they may be competing at various forums.