A pedestrian using a smartphone walks past stores selling mobile phones and accessories at the Nehru Place IT Market in New Delhi, India, May 30, 2017. (Photo/VCG)
Indian home minister Rajnath Singh said on Monday he believed the border standoff with China would end soon. Yet what the trespassing Indian troops did to their Chinese counterparts last week belies that belief.
The same day Singh made that remark, the Chinese foreign ministry confirmed that some Chinese border troops, who were carrying out normal patrols on the Chinese side of the line of actual control in the Pangong Lake area, suffered injuries from a "fierce assault" by Indian troops who obstructed their passage on Aug 15.
The Indian home minister also said that India wanted peaceful relations with its neighbors. Yet what the Indian troops did in the Pangong Lake area and the trespassing by Indian troops in Chinese territory in an attempt to block Chinese troops from building a road on Chinese soil in the Donglang area where the border is delimited are provocations that fly in the face of that sentiment.
If India really wants to have peaceful relations with China and settle its border disputes with China through negotiations, it must, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, show it is responsible, law-abiding and reasonable. It can only do that by withdrawing its troops from Chinese territory.
By saying that it wants peaceful relations with China, India is not only paying lip service to a settlement of the stand-off that has lasted more than two months, it is also seeking to shift the responsibility onto China for the likely consequences of its insistence on staying in Chinese territory.
Unless it pulls its troops out of Chinese territory, no words will convince China that India is serious and earnest about seeking a peaceful solution to the stalemate.
From the belligerent remarks India defense minister made at the very beginning of the crisis to the appeasing words uttered by the home minister on Monday, what India actually wants are concessions from China. Yet it is being naive if it expects China to give in to its unreasonable demands and its patience never to be exhausted.
No country should ever underestimate this country's resolve to defend its territorial integrity.
