Doklam standoff ends as India, China step back: & Agreeing to disagree: 

Doklam standoff ends as India, China step back: & Agreeing to disagree: 

Context

• After weeks of diplomatic negotiations, India and China agreed to disengage from the standoff on the Doklam plateau, disputed between China and Bhutan, with a formula that saw China promise to make “necessary adjustments” to their troop deployments, after Indian troops withdrew back to their posts in Sikkim on Monday.

Current state of affairs

• As per the statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, the procedure of disengagement by border personnel had been “almost completed under verification” from both sides.
• The move specified that no more troops were expected on the face off point at Doklam, which reverted to status quo ante June 16.
• “Peace and tranquility in the border areas is an essential pre-requisite for further development of our bilateral relationship,” affirmed the MEA.
• As India pulls back its personnel and equipment back to the boundary, China maintains to make necessary adjustments and deployment.
• The agreement comes a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China to attend the BRICS summit from September 3 to 5.
• At the brief meeting between Mr. Modi and President Xi at the Hamburg G-20 summit, the leaders had taken a decision to give diplomacy a chance on the standoff.

Welcome decision on both the sides

• The distinct statements by India and China that the Doklam military stand-off has ended are a welcome sign that diplomacy has prevailed over the harsh rhetoric of the past 10 weeks.
• The measured tone of the statement from New Delhi, referring to the “expeditious disengagement of border personnel” shows the government’s policy of pursuing diplomatic measures in the face of China’s angry rhetoric was wise.
• In turn, China’s statement, which said that Indian troops had withdrawn from the disputed Doklam plateau while Chinese troops continue to patrol the area, gives Beijing the leeway it requires to end the stand-off peacefully.
• The differing versions and the lack of further information leave several questions unanswered about the terms of the disengagement.
• But the very fact that both countries have been able to issue statements even if they were designed to satisfy their domestic audiences suggests that in diplomatic negotiations, each took into account the other’s constraints.
• In issuing statements that were inconsistent with each other, both sides seem to have agreed to disagree.
• To that end, the importance lies less in the detail but in the détente itself, in the decision by the leaderships of both countries to pull back from what some feared could escalate into a full-blown conflict.
• In this, it must be noted that New Delhi and Beijing have respected the wishes of the Bhutanese government, which wanted an early end to the crisis before the bitter winter set in.

Way ahead

• The decision on Doklam, which comes a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to go to China, will guide the bilateral spirit beyond the September 3-5 BRICS summit to be held in Xiamen.
• Diplomats must begin the heavy lifting required to repair the rift in ties over the past few months, beginning with the cancellation of the Nathu La route for Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims.
• Statements from China during the stand-off indicate that it no longer recognizes the gains made in the Special Representative talks in 2012.
• Nor does it regard the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction near Batang-La to have been settled.
• India and China must revert to the spirit of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement of 2013, which laid down specific guidelines on tackling future developments along the 3,488-km boundary the two countries share.
• The past two and a half months are also a lesson that India cannot be unprepared for “another Doklam”, as Chief of the Army Staff Bipin Rawat.