The 4,056 km long frontier between India and China remains unmarked on map and ground. Talks to resolve the border issue have taken place over the last 20 years at different levels of officialdom without any fruitful result.

Between 2002 and 2005 a degree of sanguineness did develop leading to hopes of an early breakthrough. But talks again started to cool off, mainly because of closer Indo-US ties and the possibility of the nuclear deal. In 2006, prior to the visit of President Hu Jintao to New Delhi, a highly provocative statement was given out by the Chinese Ambassador claiming the whole of Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory. Soon after this came the refusal of visa by the Chinese to an Indian civil service officer belonging to Arunachal on the specious ground that Arunachal belonged to China. Then, the Chinese protest on the visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal. Parallel to these developments is an increase in the intrusions of Chinese troops across the line of actual control and the Sikkim cairn issue (IE, May 18).

Historically, China has settled her border disputes with other countries when it has perceived the adversary to be weak. So it would appear that China has pushed the border issue to the backburner and is in no hurry to resolve it except on its own terms. Therefore there would be periodic attempts to make humiliating claims, questioning of Indian sovereignty on Arunachal and parts of Ladakh. Could it, in the extreme case, also lead to a border conflict?

... contd.