The long publicised and high profile Doklam standoff finally looked like flickering out after India’s Ministry of External Affairs in an official statement claimed that the standoff had ended:
As written in the press release, India stated that diplomatic relations are very much intact between India and China and as a result of that it was agreed that the troops would disengage from the face-off site and it was already in motion.
According to reports the two month long stand-off was mutually agreed upon by India and China. It also claimed that India had conveyed to China via back channels that PM Modi may not travel to the BRICS summit in China if the Doklam issue was not resolved. This would have resulted in an embarrassment to China as according to BRICS charter, the summit cannot take place unless all the heads of the 5 member countries were attending.
Interestingly rather than taking India’s olive branch to felicitate normal relations, the Chinese foreign ministry claimed that they would continue to patrol the area. This led to some speculation as to whether India is in for an embarrassment due to the Chinese not backing off. They though acknowledged that China would make necessary adjustments and deployments as per the changes.
This thankfully was not true as according to various security analysts the main point of dispute was not border patrol but was China constructing a road in the region. This construction as a result was to stop which has reportedly been agreed to by China. The patrolling which is being used as a pivot by China to assert its victory was already reportedly happening before the dispute started. This revelation meant that there was no sort of unilateral withdrawal by India.
Tenzing Lamsang the Editor In Chief of The Bhutanese, called this deescalation a relief for Bhutan and also claimed that Bhutan would adopt a wait and watch approach and not do anything which would wreck the current deal.
