Is bad-faith parley better than none?
Brahma Chellaney isn’t fooled by China’s border diplomacy. He thinks that Bhutan isn’t either and, conscious of both its own interests and those of its partner, India, is not about to give in to “China’s hardball diplomacy” (Nikkei Asia, November 3, 2023).
The latest round of talks between China and Bhutan over their unsettled border concluded last week with an agreement about the responsibilities and functions of a new joint technical team set up to demarcate the frontier.
The team was formed as the result of an agreement the two governments reached in August. That in turn followed a 2021 memorandum of understanding to expedite the border talks, which have been going on since 1984….
For China, the talks are a way to deflect attention from its incremental encroachments into Bhutanese territory, one pasture and one valley at a time.
Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies who has been an advisor to India’s national security council, observes that China has also been dragging out border talks with India for many years. Since 1981.
What happens if the talks with Bhutan do reach some kind of formal resolution? China would not then unravel all the villages and military outposts and roads that it has been building in Bhutanese territory or ease out of India either. A purported resolution would be either a fraud or would ratify China’s incursions, and India and Bhutan will not willingly cede all the stolen territory and in effect encourage China to continue its intrusions.
During all the talks over the years, China has kept pushing and grabbing, threatening both Bhutan and India. China’s 1998 agreement “not to resort to unilateral action to alter the status quo of the border” with Bhutan has proved meaningless. How could Bhutan and India trust China to abide by any seemingly satisfactory new agreement?
But no resolution is imminent, for “while Bhutan and China may reach more incremental agreements on how to take forward their talks, the end still appears nowhere in sight.” Is this also true of China’s land grabs: no end in sight?
