India’s announcement that its four-year border dispute with China has ended should be welcome news. One less hot spot in a world on fire can only be a good thing, right?
Perhaps, though it is unclear what kind of resolution has been reached, as neither side provided complete details of the arrangement reached earlier in the week or how it would be implemented. Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar did say, though, on Monday that the two nations had agreed to allow regular patrols along their contested Himalayan border. A day later, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian confirmed the deal.
Relations had soured after deadly clashes in June 2020 — involving rocks, iron bars and fists — around the high-altitude Galwan River and Pangong Tso in Ladakh left 20 Indian soldiers dead, along with an unknown number of Chinese troops. Months later, the armies fired the first shots at each other in four decades.
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