Two Asian giants, India and China, have been at unrest with each other’s border claims for a very long time, and the India-China relationship only keeps escalating. Now, US President Donald Trump has taken a special interest in foreign affairs and has advocated for peace between the two countries. He understands that both countries have some grievances and that they will be able to work it out without resorting to violence. He has also offered to help if mediation is required.
What is the Indo-China conflict?
India and China have claims on disputed areas of land, which has created a no-man’s-land and a line-of-actual control in Ladakh. Senior Indian and Chinese military commanders have recently held a meeting to discuss months of standoff going down at the line of actual control, and they have both decided to deescalate and differ from sending any more troops to the Himalayan borders.
The Chinese military is certainly much more powerful than Indian, but India is looking for an asymmetric response to its naval forces. India is working on uniting its naval maneuvers with the allied countries, as well as the US.
They are also building new ships and creating outposts in the coastal areas that will allow them to surveil any enemy activities. New Delhi, the capital of India, is keeping a strict eye on the Indian Ocean maritime activities. No traffic is going to go unnoticed.
Trump takes a stand
A popular podcast with a senior member of the South Asia program of Carnegie endowment for international peace has cited that, by declaring his knack for mediation, US President Donald Trump has taken a very clear position in the border dispute. He is openly supporting India in the crisis, and that is no longer a truth that any country can deny.
The response from the US president is also partially motivated by the fact that he has always expressed his wish to curtail the unfettered growth of China in international relations and trade markets. By allowing India to have a heavy side on the Indian and Chinese conflict, he is taking an opportunity to confront China indirectly. This is not completely exclusive to the US-China problem that is already existing. But the senior fellow discussed that the United States might not have a lot of alternatives other than doing what they are.
What made the White House take a stance on this dispute?
On top of being the so-called leader of the free world, the United States has always been wary of Chinese aggression, and they are no longer looking to ignore it. They can no longer deny India the support it needs. There is some dispute about which territory belongs to which country when it comes to the Himalayan Borderlands, and he agrees that the border dispute should be carefully negotiated through peaceful discussion.
These two countries have been reportingly bickering amongst each other since the 1990s. While both countries understand that there is a framework for a resolution that has been recurring in all these discussions, China is seemingly trying to throw away all of these understandings, which has caused the recent unrest on the border
Although the US does not clarify anything on any provocations, which could lead to the altercation, whether it was from article 370 or any other reason, they clearly think China has no place for reacting so poorly. A diplomatic provocation, if exists, has to be resolved diplomatically. There can be no place for trying to take military action, which can cause a major global upset.
Since China has decided to move its military to the borderlands, there has been a loss of lives on both sides, and this is what has probably prompted the United States to take a clear stand on this issue. So, even if we do not consider the bilateral issues between the US and China, the US did not have a diplomatic position where they could be opposing India in this case. It has also been noted that not only is this something the Trump administration has discussed and decided accurately, but even if there were a Democratic administration in the White House, they would have taken the same action.
