It allows the resumption of patrolling as it was in April 2020. This includes not just Depsang & Demchok but also northern banks of Pangong Tso, Gogra Hot Springs area & Galwan Valley.
The two countries have signed a cooperation agreement on the responsibilities and functions of the Joint Technical Team on the delimitation and demarcation of the border.
China claims around 764 sq km of land in Bhutan, in a dispute that dates to occupation of Tibet in 1950s. Meeting last week established joint technical group on border delimitation.
While the area of Chinese claims on the northern side of Bhutan are much larger compared to Doklam, the strategic significance of Doklam is what makes it indispensable for Beijing.
India’s threat to China is simple: show aggression at LAC and pay a cost in worsening ties. But the value of the threat, and hence its credibility, is questionable.
India believes that the main reason Beijing has opened a new front with Thimphu over the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary in eastern Bhutan is to ‘provoke’ New Delhi.
Monday night's fatalities due to India-China border tension was the first in four decades, but the two countries have had diplomatic stand-offs for over 70 years.
By building roads right up to the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, India is changing the rules of the game that China has been unilaterally playing all these years.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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