China Pulls Back From One Disputed Border, Makes New Claims on Another
China and India began pulling back troops from the site of a deadly border clash, as Beijing opened another front in the region’s territorial disputes with a new claim in nearby Bhutan.
Chinese and Indian troops both started to withdraw from some friction points in disputed areas along the two countries’ Himalayan border, Indian security officials said Monday, following talks between senior diplomats and military commanders to calm tensions.
The troop movements came two days after an Indian newspaper reported a brewing conflict between Beijing and Bhutan over a wildlife sanctuary involving what the Bhutanese government and experts said is a new territorial claim.
Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a “frank and in-depth exchange of views” over the telephone on Sunday ahead of the troop withdrawals, according to statements the two countries’ foreign ministries released on Monday.
Messrs. Doval and Wang agreed to de-escalate the China-India border situation as quickly as possible and to continue the communication between diplomatic and military officials to ensure the implementation of the agreement, both statements said.
Indian security officials said Monday that Chinese troops were spotted removing tents and structures from the so-called “patrolling point 14” in the Galwan Valley near which soldiers of the two nuclear-armed nations had clashed in a hand-to-hand combat into the night of June 15, leaving 20 Indian soldiers dead.
Both sides had agreed not to take “any unilateral action to alter the status quo,” the Indian government said.
China took a somewhat more forceful tone, emphasizing that it would “continue to vigorously defend its own territorial sovereignty and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.”
Indian and Chinese armies have been locked in a bitter standoff at multiple locations in eastern parts of the Ladakh region since early May, when a skirmish broke out in one of the disputed points during patrolling by troops. The region has seen a heavy buildup of troops and artillery by both the sides since then.
Last month’s conflict in the Galwan Valley, a barren stretch of mountains in the northeastern part of Ladakh, marked the first time since 1975 that border clashes between Chinese and Indian troops had resulted in deaths. Indian security officials said there were casualties and injuries on the Chinese side, though Beijing hasn’t confirmed any.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been pursuing an increasingly aggressive approach to asserting territorial claims along the country’s periphery. The resulting tensions have raised expectations that India could draw closer to the U.S. and other Asian countries for help in fending off Beijing’s pressure.
Removing troops from volatile border areas is seen as a confidence-building exercise following multiple meetings between the two militaries, including a face-to-face discussion between senior commanders in late June.
“The most important thing for now is that everyone gets to cool down,” said Lin Minwang, deputy director of the Center for South Asian Studies at Fudan University.
In a broad plan, described by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs as “phased and stepwise,” troops of both the countries are to gradually move back from the front line to a so-called buffer zone to keep a safe distance and not see each other eye-to-eye, said one of the Indian security officials. Night patrolling too would be avoided to check further spat and flare-ups, said the official.
China’s latest dispute with Bhutan, an ally of India, adds a new wrinkle to territorial contests in the region—and suggests Beijing still wants to keep pressure on New Delhi.
The conflict arose in early June, when China opposed a grant for a wildlife sanctuary in Sakteng, in eastern Bhutan, during an online meeting of the Global Environment Facility, an international financial organization that funds environmental projects.
Beijing said the wildlife sanctuary is located in disputed areas that are “on the agenda of China-Bhutan boundary talks,” according to the minutes of the meeting.
Bhutan rebutted China’s claim to Sakteng, stating that “at no point during the boundary discussions between Bhutan and China has it featured as a disputed area.”
While China and Bhutan have long disagreed over territorial boundaries along central and western stretches of their mutual border, experts said, the eastern stretch has been free of dispute.
China’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement to The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, said disputes had existed in all three sectors for a long time and called on an unspecified “third party” to “not point fingers,” in an apparent reference to India.
In a statement to the Hindustan Times on Saturday, China’s Foreign Ministry had said that “there are no new disputed areas.”
Bhutan’s embassy in India didn’t directly address the sanctuary issue, saying: “The boundary between Bhutan and China is under negotiation and has not been demarcated.”
The Indian foreign ministry didn’t respond to requests for comments on the situation in Bhutan.
Fudan University’s Mr. Lin said China and Bhutan had basically resolved their border issues 20 years ago. “But they cannot sign a border agreement because India, which wields great influence over Bhutan, doesn’t allow it to sign the treaty with China,” he said.
Making new claims in eastern Bhutan is a low-risk way for Beijing to put added pressure on New Delhi, said Kanti Prasad Bajpai, professor of international relations at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.
The area, which borders the Indian territory of Arunachal Pradesh—which is also claimed by China—could serve as a bargaining chip for Beijing when negotiating this round of disengagement with Indian troops and to signal to its home audience that China will defend its territorial claims even though it is pulling back troops from one of the disputed areas.
“The Bhutan claim is something the Indians will notice but they won’t necessarily get hot headed over it and immediately send troops to defend the area,” Mr. Bajpai said.
Photo: The Indian army held exercises on July 4 in Leh, in the Himalayan border region of Ladakh. - PHOTO: MOHD ARHAAN ARCHER/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
