The idea of cross-border engagement also appears to be gaining ground in the Sino-Indian boundary consultations. While rejecting territorial concessions in Tawang, India has proposed a number of ideas on opening up the border between Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet and institutional cooperation across it.

India is waiting to see if Dai Bingguo stays with the traditional approach of asserting territorial claims to Arunachal Pradesh, especially to Tawang, or comes up with new thoughts. Singh and Hu had proclaimed in their joint statement last November that an early settlement of the boundary dispute is a “strategic objective” for the two nations.

The two sides can realise this by freezing territorial status quo, reopening the border between Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh, and regulating the movement across the frontier through a joint consultative mechanism. This could also help restore the traditional trade and tourism between Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and Western Tibet that hosts Lake Manasarovar and Mount Kailash.