The McMahon line is therefore not the complete answer:

First – in that it did not really delineate a proper watershed line, since it cut across several rivers and also gives way to the broken and sharply ridged area which goes down to the Brahmaputra valley.

Second – as any person with even a modicum of military knowledge would realize, a ridge or watershed line can never be an effective and peaceful border, as each side would then seek to occupy the best vantage points thereon .

The answer lies in taking up a detailed land survey in close coordination with the local military commanders and clearly identifying the areas and the passes thereto, that are essential for our national interests and calling for the boundary to be the valley or water/river line beyond that ridge that overlooks or controls access to such areas or passes. We should also be equally accommodating for areas essential to Chinese national interest which are not essential to our interests, such as the road linking Tibet to Xinjiang in the Aksai Chin area. This should be acceptable to us as long as we too benefit from such adjustments along the entire border.

In such a case the other side would occupy the ridge on the other side of the valley designated as the boundary, and the valley in between would then become a sort of quiet & peaceful meeting/trading zone and there would be no ‘eyeball to eye-ball’ confrontation.

It is perhaps time to now be pragmatic about the entire issue and to call on the Chinese to come to the negotiating table with the same attitude as

Premier Chou Enlai declared in April 1960. To thus arrive at a mutual understanding and with mutual accommodation, and to avoid conflict over an ill-demarcated and disputed boundary.

The Political mileage of all this could lead to a real “Hindi-Chini, Bhai- Bhai” relationship, and greatly speed up the ‘Effects Diplomacy’ of building joint trade with each other, thus greatly reducing the chance of any direct conflict, the costs of which neither would like to bear.

To quote Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh from his address to the US Congress in 2005, which is equally applicable to the Indo China circumstances amongst others: –

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10