“Seven weeks into the Doklam crisis, the continued impasse—and increasingly caustic rhetoric—indicates the potential for escalation remains high”, according to Foreign Policy but New Delhi continues to assert: India wants to settle the issue through diplomatic channels, peacefully.

Stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops on the Doklam (also called Donglang) Plateau – a ridge in the Himalayan foothills claimed by both China and Bhutan—continues.
Late last week, India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, met China State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of a BRICS security summit in Beijing. It was their first formal meeting since the face off at the tri-junction started on June 18. From what is in public domain, the meeting did bring the curtains down. And India appears prepared for a long stand-off, lasting months, even years. Delhi doesn’t want a military clash with Beijing; it however cannot compromise on its security interests. The remote ridge is vital to India’s national security, because it lies some 50 kilometres from the Siliguri Corridor—a narrow slice of territory that connects India’s seven northeastern states to the rest of the country.
Beijing is adamant India must withdraw its troops unconditionally before there can be any substantive talks on the Doklam issue and the related question of where the tri-junction between the borders of India, China, and Bhutan lies. This proposition has few takers more so since Indian troops made to Doklam to prevent Chinese construction workers from expanding a road on the disputed ridge. Never before has the Indian Army confronted Chinese troops on territory to which New Delhi makes no claim, acting instead in the name of a third country.
Chinese officials and the country’s state-owned media have repeatedly indicated that Beijing’s patience is wearing thin. According to a report in The Indian Express, Beijing is anxious to have the dispute settled by the time of BRICS heads of government summit that is to be held in Xiamen (China) at the beginning of next month.
On Wednesday, Aug 2nd, China’s foreign ministry issued a 15-page statement detailing its position on the Doklam dispute. It reiterated Beijing’s demand that India “pull back all its troops to end the military standoff,” while noting that “there were still over 40 Indian border troops and one bulldozer illegally staying in Chinese territory.” This, the statement said, was down from a high of 400 Indian troops. Indian foreign office has outright refuted these claims.
The Chinese statement included a thinly-veiled threat of military action. “No country,” it warned, “should ever underestimate the resolve of the Chinese government” to defend China’s territorial sovereignty and integrity, adding Beijing would take “all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests.”
The statement said that as a sign of “goodwill” China had informed New Delhi of the road-building project in advance. “India’s intrusion into the Chinese territory under the pretext of Bhutan,” it continued, “has not only violated China’s territorial sovereignty but also challenged Bhutan’s sovereignty and independence.” Both Thimphu and Delhi have a different take. On June 29, Bhutan’s government issued a detailed statement protesting the Chinese incursion.
In the current dispute with India, Beijing has adopted a hard-line and bellicose stance that contrasts markedly with the manner it dealt with previous disputes with New Delhi. Not only has the state-run media given the dispute great prominence, but papers like the Global Times have churned out article after article threatening and taunting India with a massive military defeat should it not back down.
In an interview with The Hindu, Joshua T. White, a former top diplomat in the Obama administration, made clear that Washington would not remain on the sidelines in the event of a clash between India and China.
“The US,” said White, “is largely sympathetic to the challenge that India faces in dealing with a territorially assertive China. Given the nature of Sino-Indian disputes, India technically does not ask for our help because it does not need it. But it knows that Washington presents a sympathetic ear and that if there were to be wider a Sino-Indian crisis, we will have a totally different conversation.”
Last month India, the US, and Japan held the largest-ever Indian Ocean naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal. And speaking at the India-US Forum in New Delhi (July 31, 2017), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said a strong India-US partnership is “critical” for “upholding an international rules-based system” across the Indo-Pacific region.
“Seven weeks into the crisis, the continued impasse—and increasingly caustic rhetoric—indicates the potential for escalation remains high”, according to an analyst in Foreign Policy but the Foreign Office in New Delhi continues to assert: India wants to settle the issue through diplomatic channels, peacefully.
-by Poreg team