New Delhi: India and China have been blaming each other for apparent aggressions made at the controversial Himalayan border, where military tensions have escalated after hand-to-hand combat on June 15.
According to an article published by Al Jazeera, “Chinese troops approached the India side for negotiations, and then they say some Indian troops fired at the Chinese side.”
The Indian army has denied the allegation in their statement saying, “[i]t is the PLA that has been blatantly violating agreements and carrying out aggressive maneuvers.”
The two nuclear-armed sides have been in a border dispute due to the poor demarcation of a 3,440 km long border lying at the altitude of more than 4,000 meters, with both sides wanting to out-build each other to strengthen their claim. A new road built in the region by India is said to be the immediate cause behind the physical dispute that led to the death of at least 20 Indian soldiers on June 15.
Military officials and diplomats of both India and China have been discussing the issue regularly, but little progress has been made to fan down the heat, as both sides have increased their military presence by deploying thousands of soldiers at the border within the last few months.
The border tension has also penetrated the bilateral economy of India and China with India banning hundreds of Chinese apps as an attempt to retaliate against China following the death of the 20 soldiers.
Since then, the Chinese side has been assessing the conditions at the border and acting cautiously. China is India’s second-largest trading partner after the United States and extending the border conflict to economic sectors has severely affected India, whose economy has been halted due to COVID-19.
“A trade war is not going to benefit either of the countries,” saidGeethanjaliNataraj, an economics professor at the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA).
