{"id":35383,"date":"2018-10-31T17:09:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T11:39:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=35383"},"modified":"2018-10-31T17:09:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T11:39:33","slug":"lessons-from-doklam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lessons-from-doklam\/","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from Doklam:"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/lessons-from-doklam\/article19583984.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lessons from Doklam<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several significant questions remain unanswered about the terms and conditions of the resolution of the Sino-Indian military stand-off at Doklam, it provides New Delhi and Beijing an opportunity to reflect over what went wrong and rejig this important bilateral relationship.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China to attend the BRICS summit will provide the two sides such an opportunity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Lesson learnt<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most self-evident lesson from the Doklam stand-off is that we inhabit a \u2018self-help\u2019 world wherein China is a world power.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is on its own and would have to fend for itself in case of a clash with China, a country with which every major state in the international system has a robust economic relationship.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">None of the major powers unambiguously and unreservedly supported India\u2019s position on Doklam.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In fact, even Bhutan kept a studied silence through the latter part of the stand-off.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New Delhi, therefore, must carefully review the scenarios and consider its options before upping the ante.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, regarding Doklam, instead of inviting military attention to itself and trapping itself in a conflict with Beijing, New Delhi could have convinced Thimphu to be more vocal about Bhutan\u2019s territorial rights.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doklam stand-off is that China is unlikely to respect India\u2019s \u2018special relationships\u2019 with its neighbours.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has long enjoyed a special status in the South Asian region and often treated it as its exclusive backyard.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With China expanding its influence in the region and competing for status and influence, the \u2018middle kingdom\u2019 considers South Asia, with India in it, as its periphery.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">China uses economic incentives and military pressure to do so.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s traditional policy towards South Asia, of limited economic assistance topped with a big brother attitude, will need to undergo fundamental transformation to retain its influence.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India should consider all odds and evaluate the merit of the cause before making military commitments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian political parties cannot make any domestic gains by whipping up nationalist passions against China.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs to engage China diplomatically to resolve outstanding conflicts rather than engage in a war of words, or worse, threaten to use force.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs to realize the importance of cooperating with China on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) while getting China to do so on various India-led regional projects. It cannot be a zero-sum game.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What next?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is high time, therefore, that the two countries appointed dedicated high-ranking officials to discuss the boundary issues in a more sustained and result-oriented manner.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is necessary for India to devise a strategy to engage a resurgent China, also a significant neighbour, in the days ahead.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is also an urgent need to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to deal with Beijing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India needs to engage China a lot more at several levels: diplomatically, politically, multilaterally and economically.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The upcoming BRICS summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen is a good occasion to initiate a dedicated backchannel with Beijing given the high potential for future disagreements.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lessons from Doklam: Context Several significant questions remain unanswered about the terms and conditions of the resolution of the Sino-Indian military stand-off at Doklam, it provides New Delhi and Beijing an opportunity to reflect over what went wrong and rejig this important bilateral relationship. The upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to China to&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/lessons-from-doklam\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Lessons from Doklam:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704840229},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35383","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35383\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}