Don't shift goalposts and confuse border management with resolving boundary questions, India tells China

Beijing: India has told China not to shift goalposts and confuse managing the border affairs and restoring peace at the frontiers with the larger issue of the resolution of the boundary question, which is dealt with by different designated mechanisms.

After the standoff erupted in eastern Ladakh in May last year, India has consistently maintained that peace and tranquillity in the border areas are essential for the overall development of relations between the two countries.

Besides being neighbours, India and China are also large and emerging economies and it is not unusual to have differences and problems", Indian envoy to China Vikram Misri said while addressing the 4th High-level Track II Dialogue on China-India Relations held on September 23.

The key question is how to deal with them and ensure that outcomes are informed by reasonableness, maturity and respect for the maintenance of peace and tranquillity along our frontiers," Misri said.

The meeting held virtually was co-hosted by the School of International Studies of Sichuan University (SCU), China Centre for South Asian Studies and Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA) in which several former envoys and scholars took part.

Besides Misri, China's Ambassador to India Sun Weidong also participated in the meeting.

Referring to multi-faceted dialogue held by the two countries since last year including several rounds of talks between the top military officials on both sides and the meetings between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to resolve the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh, Misri said: These contacts have resulted in significant progress on the ground.

Following disengagement in the Galwan Valley in July last year, the two sides have been able to disengage from the North and South Banks of the Pangong Lake in February 2021, and most recently from Gogra in August 2021," he said.

The conversation between the two sides continues regarding the remaining locations and we hope that disengagement at the remaining friction areas will enable us to reach a point where we can pick up the threads of bilateral cooperation," he said. The experience of this multi-faceted dialogue over the last year and a half leads me to believe that we are well-equipped when it comes to resolving pressing issues in the bilateral relationship," he said.

Our leaders have in the past concurred that we must work out issues peacefully, prevent differences from turning into disputes and, most importantly, preserve peace and tranquillity in our border areas," he said.

The recent experience also suggests that at the ground level, when managing a difficult bilateral situation, finding a resolution hinges on mature minds, open channels, and consistency between words and actions. But while these are positive elements we can draw on, we must steer clear of certain obstacles which could block progress," he said. The first is to avoid shifting goalposts. For long, the Indian and Chinese sides have adhered to a well-understood distinction between resolving the boundary question and managing border affairs," he said.

The 1988 understanding between our leaders was precisely for keeping the resolution of the boundary question on a track separate yet parallel to the bilateral relationship, with the maintenance of peace and tranquillity as the prerequisite," he said.

The Special Representatives mechanism, the Agreement on Political Parameters and Guiding Principles of 2005 and the three-phase framework were all designed to work on the boundary question, "which we agreed was a complex and sensitive issue requiring time to work through," Misri said.

This is the root cause of the tense situation along the borders. We advocate that we should address the boundary issue through peaceful negotiations and we don't think that the border issue should be linked up to our bilateral ties," he said.

But at the same for managing border affairs on a daily basis, the two countries had evolved a mechanism, consisting of instruments such as the WMCC (Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs) and a succession of agreements, protocols and CBMs, in order to govern behaviour on the ground and ensure peace and tranquillity .

A serious violation of peace and tranquillity in the border areas naturally requires us to apply our minds on the basis of established agreements, protocols and mechanisms to resolve it. As we do so, any attempt to confuse border affairs with the Boundary Question is a disservice to the work of those involved in finding solutions," he said. This is why the Indian side has been consistently saying that the current issue is about restoring peace and tranquillity to the border areas and is not about the resolution of the larger Boundary Question, on which India's stance has not changed, despite what happened last year, he said.

The India-China border dispute covers the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC).

China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet, which is firmly rejected by India.

Misri also said China should not take a one-sided view of mutual concerns and sensitivities.