Switching
gears a bit, my thoughts go out to the steadily rising escalation between India
and China. While India is rightfully expression anguish over its troops
marching 10 kms inside its borders and not letting go of the Daulat Beg Oldi
(DBO) area in Ladakh, China has stuck to its version that there has been no
intrusion of Chinese troops within India’s boundaries. Following up with this
intrusions, came the report of two Chinese helicopters flying hundreds of
kilometers into Indian airspace at Chumar (to the southeast of Leh).
Historically,
the two emerging superpowers have co-existed peacefully in their earliest days
(India and China have two of the world’s oldest civilizations). Starting with
the famed Silk Route, there has always been a positive tone of cooperation
between the two nations as far as trade and economic ties are concerned. Even
with the daunting Himalayan ranges bordering and separating the two countries,
there has been no shortage of border-related disputes between India and China.
Contemporary historical period is filled with three distinct periods of border
related military clashes between the two nations:
1.
Sino-Indian
war of 1962: Started with China’s infiltration of
the 3000 km long Himalayan border, it involved coordinated offensives launched
by Chinese army. The war reached an end with a declaring of ceasefire by China
and the subsequent withdrawal of its troops from the disputed area
2.
Chola
incident (1967): Triggered by the intrusion of
People’s Liberation Army of China into Sikkim (at that time, a protectorate
that was elf governed but its interests was protected by India). The day long
conflict ended with the retreat of the PLA from Sikkim
3.
1987
Sino-Indian conflict: Following a ramp up of presence of
India forces across the Line of Actual Control on the Indo-China border, there
was severe deterioration of relations between the two countries. After India’s
granting of statehood to Arunachal Pradesh, this led to a danger of a war
between them. Finally both governments realized the need for de-escalating the
conflict and phased out the heavy army presence on the border regions
In
the current context there are two territories that are at the center of
Indo-China disputes – Arunachal Pradesh (located near far-east India) and Aksai
Chin (located at the north-west corner of India). Both China and India lay
claim to the disputed regions without conceding it to the other. On the other
end of the spectrum both countries acknowledge the need for a strong bilateral
tie that was further strengthened by the recent meeting of Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao with India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A significant cornerstone of
this meet is the signing of pact to increase bilateral trade to 100 billion
dollars by 2015
Resource: website content writing services
Resource: website content writing services
