Ahead of the BRICS summit in Russia, India and China announced an end to the four-year military standoff between the two countries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will have their first official bilateral meeting in five years!
India and China have reached an agreement on patrolling arrangements along the LAC and the border areas. This has led to a disengagement and resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. This breakthrough in the standoff between India and China was made possible by numerous rounds of discussions and dialogue between diplomatic and military negotiators of the two countries.
It must be noted that, in 2012, India and China set up the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination (WMCC) on India-China Border Affairs. It is an official institutional mechanism to resolve border-related disagreements and conflicts through communication and cooperation. The main goal of this framework is to establish peace and tranquility in India-China border areas and to enhance mutual trust and security between the two countries.
Since the inception of the WMCC in 2012, only 14 rounds of discussion had taken place over a period of 8 years until the 2020 unilateral border incursions by China and the subsequent clash that led to loss of lives of soldiers on both sides. But following the Galwan border clash, both India and China made a commitment to not allow differences to become disputes, and to work towards disengaging along the LAC. The two sides agreed to keep all diplomatic and military communication channels open and to participate in discussions and dialogue to reach a solution that is acceptable to both sides so that peace and tranquility can be restored along the border regions.
The recently announced truce did not come easy. In order to reach the agreement on disengagement, and to resolve the border issues that arose in mid-2020, under the WMCC framework alone, India and China held 17 rounds of discussions over the past 4 years. This is in addition to 21 rounds of military dialogue and numerous meetings between leaders and special representatives of India and China on various platforms during this period.
A key point to note is that throughout the past 4 years, both Indian and Chinese government’s official readouts describe these discussions as being candid and in-depth exchange of views and ideas to achieve common goals of peace and tranquility. Western leaders, neocon political pundits and TV talking heads must be thinking “what a novel concept of conflict resolution”!
The agreement between India and China is a good development and one that must be lauded. While it is not the end of all border related issues between India and China, it is a very good step towards resolving the boundary question and border issues between the two most populous countries.
It just goes to show that peace is possible through dialogue and discussion. Diplomacy, negotiations, dialogue are the best ways to resolve conflicts. War and violence must be shunned as a failure of diplomacy. War must always be the last resort to solve conflicts. Conquering territories through war might be quick and easy, but it comes at a very high cost, loss of precious lives, displacement, and an enduring enmity and distrust between nations, cultures, and their peoples. Achieving peace without bloodshed takes patience, time, effort, and commitment, but it can strengthen relationships, and build trust between nations.
In the 21st century, diplomacy, and not war, should be recognised as an act of courage and valour. The western world, which often portrays war as bravery and diplomacy as cowardice, needs a massive shift in culture where instead of glamourising war violence and lethal weaponry, diplomacy and dialogue are encouraged, praised, and rewarded. This requires a serious decoupling of political donations, think tanks, media and academia from the massive military industrial complex. Will it ever happen? Only time will tell.
