In August 2017, after a 73-day face-off in Doklam, India and China announced disengagement of border personnel from the site.
It has been a year since then and this article tries to relook at the events.
How did the face-off begin?
Dolam Plateau is located in the Doklam area in Bhutan and lies in close proximity to India (Sikkim) -Bhutan-China tri-junction.
The Chinese Army entered the area with road construction equipments in June 2017, and asserted the claim that the region was Chinese territory.
In this context, Bhutan had formally launched a diplomatic protest complaint against China and also stated that its sovereign territory is being violated.
Further, this was seen by India as a threat for its own borders and an assault on Bhutan (whose security has been entrusted with India).
With the Chinese refusing to heed to Indian calls for a retreat, a tense faceoff on Dolam plateau between Indian and Chinese soldiers commenced.
What factors played to heighten India’s concerns?
India’s concern largely reeled from the fact that China unilaterally intended to alter the status quo by aggressively building infrastructure.
Notably, there is ambiguity on the territorial jurisdiction of a stretch of land in the tri-junction, and an interim understanding exists currently.
Further, the Doklam region is also very close to the strategic Siliguri corridor (or chicken neck corridor), that connects North East with rest of India.
This had caused New Delhi to be extra anxious in the Doklam aggression.
How did negotiations proceed?
PM Modi met Chinese President Xi on July 2017 (while the confrontation was going on) on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
In this conference, it was the leaders had stressed that matters can be resolved only through diplomatic channels and subsequently negotiations were started.
Notably, both sides were conscious of the importance of ending the face-off before the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, scheduled in September 2017.
Negotiations - India had stated that the Sikkim’s border with China wasn’t a settled one and that Doklam was a sovereign territory of Bhutan.
Several rounds of talks followed and both countries agreed in the “Astana Consensus” that differences should not become disputes.
After weeks of talks, an agreement to resolve the situation was reached and disengagement of border personnel happened in late August 2017.
Aftermath - On its part, India willingly took the first step to break the impasse by removing its troops first and returning them to initial positions.
The Chinese removed troops, equipment and tents from the construction site, and thereby dropped any plans of building a southward road in the region.
But it did not bring the Chinese troops back to the status quo as they continue to remain deployed in northern Doklam where they were earlier absent.
What were the previous incidences in Doklam?
The 1st recorded incidence of Chinese entering Doklam (Bhutan) was in 1966, when India sent a protest on Bhutan’s behalf.
Such intrusions had become regular in the past two decades and India always gets involved as it is handling Bhutan’s foreign policy.
In 2007, Chinese patrol troops had even destroyed India’s self-help bunkers in the region and there were some escalations.
Nonetheless, 2017 Doklam intrusion by China was unique as it had a massive contingent of 80 (usually its 10), and had also planned road construction.
How does the future look?
Tensions between India and China have subsided to a great extent following an informal summit between Modi and Xi in Wuhan (May 2018).
Both leaders agreed to provide “strategic guidance” to their militaries, which has since largely reduced the possibility of confrontation.
India and China are also slated to hold a series of dialogues on settling the border question through special representatives and ministerial level talks
Notably, Chinese Defence Minister recently visited India and stressed the need to stepping up strategic communication between the two countries.
