The Galwan valley clash: another perspective: Sagarika Dutt analyses the recent conflict on the China-India border.

• Author: Dutt, Sagarika

On 15 June 2020 Indian and Chinese troops clashed in the Galwan valley along the line of actual control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. It claimed the lives of twenty Indian army personnel, according to Indian government sources. A number of Chinese soldiers were also killed in this conflict. It was the culmination of a border stand-off that began in May. This is not the first time that there have been serious tensions in the border areas. The last time there was a military standoff between the two armies was in 2017 in Doklam. But this time it was even more serious and the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has taken it to heart. He feels that it was a betrayal by the Chinese government after he had extended a hand of friendship and goodwill to them and signed business deals with them. (1) It reminds one of how Jawaharlal Nehru felt when the 1962 war between India and China took place. In a televised message to the Indian nation, Modi said that the martyrdom of the twenty soldiers will not be in vain and that India's territorial integrity and sovereignty is supreme. India will do whatever it takes to defend the country and its borders. (2) This article reflects on and analyses India's response to the border clash and the efforts that have been made by India and China to de-escalate tensions in the border areas.

After India got its independence from British rule in 1947, India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was in favour of maintaining good relations with China, although he was fully aware of the border issue. In 1954 India and China signed the 'Agreement on Trade and Intercourse between India and China relating to Tibet' incorporating the Panchsheel principles that commit both countries to mutual non-aggression and peaceful co-existence. (3) This led to a cordial phase in Sino-Indian relations during which relations between the two countries were described as like those between brothers or Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai. However, in 1962 there was a border war between the two countries that India claims was started by China and for which India was ill prepared. Since then India has viewed China with suspicion, and relations between the two countries have not been good (notwithstanding the growing trade between them). Thus, one of the main reasons for the conflict between the two countries is the border dispute that they have not succeeded in resolving in over 60 years.

But apart from the historical territorial claims made by China and also India, and from which they are not prepared to back down as they believe that their territorial integrity is at stake, the strategic importance of the disputed territory also needs to be considered as it has increased in recent years. This is on account of China's bases and highways in the Aksai Chin area that India claims is illegally occupied by the Chinese, as well as its Belt and Road Initiative of which the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which goes through Ladakh, is an important part. (4) Not wanting to be outdone by the Chinese, India has decided to ramp up its infrastructure in the border area, which includes building the roads and bridges that are necessary to improve its military capabilities and logistics and strengthen its defence of its borderlands, but which the Chinese oppose as they believe that it is leading to intrusion into what they claim is their side of the border. India has also stepped up the patrolling of its northern borders in recent years, which brings the two militaries into close proximity to each other and increases the chances of skirmishes. But Modi feels betrayed by the Chinese because during his visit to Wuhan in 2018 for informal talks with President Xi Jinping, both leaders had agreed to improve communication between their militaries to maintain peace at the border, and this has clearly not happened. (5)

Government responses

The Indian national security advisor...