{"id":175992,"date":"2022-03-25T20:53:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T15:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=175992"},"modified":"2022-03-25T20:54:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T15:24:24","slug":"the-peculiar-case-of-ladakhs-eastern-boundary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-peculiar-case-of-ladakhs-eastern-boundary\/","title":{"rendered":"The peculiar case of Ladakh\u2019s eastern boundary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Context: <\/b><\/strong>Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval. This provides a chance to focus on Ladakh\u2019s eastern boundary and ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n

History of Ladakh\u2019s boundary:<\/b><\/strong><\/h5>\n

There has never been a defined boundary in this area because high watershed frameworks do not apply to parallel ranges in Ladakh.<\/p>\n

By Treaty of Timosgang, 1684, <\/b><\/strong>Ladakh emerged as a distinct entity. This treaty established relations between Leh and Lhasa through trade exchanges.<\/p>\n

Treaty of Chushul, 1842 <\/b><\/strong>– Ladakh and Tibet agreed to maintain the status quo.<\/p>\n

Treaty of Amritsar, 1846 <\/b><\/strong>\u00a0between the East India Company and the State of Kashmir included Ladakh with its eastern boundary undefined, and the focus remained pashmina trade.<\/p>\n

During British rule, <\/b><\/strong>the focus shifted to the northern boundary of Ladakh because of the threat of Russian advance. In eastern Ladakh, however, the customary boundary was defined only for a very limited area under human occupation. This was also stated in the \u2018Gazetteer of Kashmir and Ladak\u2019 in 1890. <\/b><\/strong>In this unoccupied Aksai Chin was described as \u201cneutral territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

New domestic consensus:<\/b><\/strong><\/h5>\n

The year 1954, <\/b><\/strong>was a turning point in complicating the situation. Unilateral actions in \u2018neutral territory\u2019, establishing a strategic road, and defining the boundary converted a colonial ambiguity into a dispute. Instead of adopting the watershed principle as in the case of other Himalayan states.<\/p>\n

In 1959 <\/b><\/strong>– Both nations hardened their positions relying on selective historical correspondence that would justify their stand.<\/p>\n

In 1993 <\/b><\/strong>\u00a0– Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control was signed, moving from history to principles.<\/p>\n

In 2020 <\/b><\/strong>– Focus has shifted to the ground situation. The recent joint statement highlights continuing dialogue to reach a mutually acceptable solution.<\/p>\n

What is the solution? <\/b><\/strong><\/h5>\n

Solution lies in continuing dialogue. An agreement on the watershed boundary following a well-established principle could meet national security concerns of India and China without bringing in intractable issues of sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Source: This post is created based on \u201c The peculiar case of Ladakh\u2019s eastern boundary\u201d published in <\/b><\/strong>The Hindu on 25th<\/sup>\u00a0March 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Context: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval. This provides a chance to focus on Ladakh\u2019s eastern boundary and ongoing conflict. History of Ladakh\u2019s boundary: There has never been a defined boundary in this area because high watershed frameworks do not apply to parallel… Continue reading The peculiar case of Ladakh\u2019s eastern boundary<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-175992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704871178},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}