Restraint has a bottom line: China tells India

Both Beijing and Thimphu claim the region, but Bhutan co-ordinates its relations with China through India.

“The territorial issue in Doklam, and the rest of Sino-Indian border, will be resolve in a peaceful and diplomatic offer”.

Amid the border standoff with China, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay on Friday said that the Indian government remains committed to ensure the security of its citizens and territory.

Chinese officials and the country’s state-owned media have repeatedly indicated that Beijing’s patience is wearing thin. This aspect was subtly pointed out to China by the Indian foreign Minister when she said that “even after a war, a solution is arrived at in the long run only through dialogue”.

China and Bhutan have been holding talks over their border dispute since the 1980s and Bhutan feared the road construction would affect the process of drawing their boundary. “There’s no easy solution”, said an Asian diplomat, who attended a briefing, referring to both sides’ insistence that they are in the right.

It is in this background that India has recently taken two tough decisions when it comes to China. Today both Russian Federation and the United States are supporting India. In Rajya Sabha Thursday, Sushma Swaraj underlined that China had been contributing to India’s economic growth and had huge stakes in the country. China and India should continue with friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation, ” the Consul General said.

You Dongxiaom, an associate professor at the International College of Defense at the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army, said Indian strategists and policymakers were mistaken if they thought China will back down sooner or later. Knowing this India sent his troops and equipment to put a stop on the roadwork and push back the Chinese workers, China accused India of intruding into its territory and of strong-arming Bhutan into going along.

The statement included a thinly-veiled threat of military action.

“China has exercised great restraint, demonstrating respect to peace and human life”, the editorial said.

“The China-Bhutan boundary issue is one between China and Bhutan”. Besides, India has security obligations with respect to Bhutan and strategic sensitivities of its own vis-à-vis Doklam.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministry released a 15-page document of “facts” about the border dispute, which included a map of alleged intrusions and photographs of what it stated were Indian troops and military vehicles on China’s side of the frontier.

Only on June 29, that is a week-and-a-half after the standoff began, did Bhutan’s government even issue a statement protesting the alleged Chinese incursion. “The gap in national strength between the two countries is the largest in the past 50 years”.