Sino-Indian military standoff unlikely to end immediately: experts

Beijing: The ongoing military standoff between China and India could continue for a little longer
due to complexity of the situation, analysts said.

The talks between the two countries’ senior military officers came at a time when China-India border tensions flared up after India recently illegally constructed defense facilities across the border into Chinese territory in the Galwan Valley region, and
Chinese border defense troops countered with increased border control measures.

Qian Feng, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and director of the research department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told Global Times that the trigger of the event, India’s construction of infrastructure on Chinese territory, must be stopped, or China will not accept the situation.

He however said, the recent talks involved high-ranking officers from both militaries, indicating that both sides are paying great attention to the situation and do not want to escalate it.

It showed that China and India remain determined to peacefully resolve border issues, Qian said, noting that both sides have the strategic wisdom to see through the US’ ulterior motive in intervening and encouraging India to confront China at a time when China-US relations are deteriorating.

Media reports suggest both sides have been reinforcing their troops in the border areas, leading to another standoff that some said will become a second Doklam crisis.

This will not be the case, as both sides have gained a great deal of experience from the Doklam incident in 2017, and since then all kinds of bilateral mechanisms including on military, diplomatic and local issues, have been established, which has eliminated the possibility of an incident escalating into a crisis, experts noted.

That being said, the ongoing standoff is not likely to end immediately, as concrete issues must still be resolved, Qian said.