Danger on L.A.C : China vs India

The phone conversation between foreign minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi appears to have yielded an agreement to de-escalate matters and deals fairly with the situation on the LAC. The key problem here is that there is no commonly agreed defination of the LAC, and the most pressing issue therefore is to arrive at one. But Beijing, which has demonstrated a marked propensity to change facts on the ground, may not be in a hurry to do so.

If a shooting war does break out, an exited Pakistan could jump into the war as well.Pakistani guns and mortar opened up on Kupwara soon after the Galwan valley killings. Most Indian strategists and politicians tend to see the military threat from Pakistan in isolation. However, if a two front war with China and Pakistan does happen, then the invisible hand that props up Pakistan in its anti-India endeavours will have shown itself.

Once we reset our strategic lens to see the security threat from Pakistan as a subset of that from China, it's evident that there is a power differential between India and the China-Pakistan axis. To address this, India cannot afford to be isolated. In the medium term, it will need to get into closer security alignments with the US and other major Western powers. In short term India should strengthen whatever positions it controls on the LAC, based on a realistic assessment, and prepare for any Chinese adventurism. It should also launch a strong diplomatic campaign in the world, highlighting Beijing aggressive positions in territorial disputes with other nations, which threaten the peace of the world.