“India will be wary of this agreement. They will take one step at a time but it was important to begin this process of re-engaging with each other because of five years of complete standoff, diplomatically, politically, militarily was not proving to be of any use. It was a stalemate.”
Stratnewsglobal Editor-in-Chief Nitin Gokhale just back from the BRICS summit in Kazan, sat down for this chat on how he saw the agreement or understanding with China on disengagement on the Line of Actual Control.
As he argued, there was some urgency on the Indian side since the last round of disengagement was in September 2022, from Gogra and Hot Springs. But India needed access to the patrolling points, as in the Depsang Plains where the Chinese were blocking movement from the “Y” Junction.
“Conversely, the Chinese used to come to a village called Burtse where India was blocking them. Stalemate there also.”
But for India Depsang was important since it gave access to a larger area, nearly 800 sq km of plan flat land. And there was a need to go and show the flag there because that is the claim line that India had.
From there was born the insistence over two years, that there must be a return to the status quo of May 2020, otherwise India will not budge on any other aspect of the bilateral relationship.
As for BRICS, Gokhale said, when looked at from President Putin’s point of view, “he’s got these big countries on his side, he’s got Brazil, he’s got India, he’s got China … And now you’ve got five more members not small powerhouses as far as their economy is concerned Saudi Arabia, UAE Egypt …”
To one extent or the other, many of these countries are the victims of Western hegemony, but Brazil, India and South Africa would also see BRICS as providing them leverage in their dealings with the West.
“The glue holding them together is that this is non-US, non-Western led grouping, not an alliance, so that is where the challenge and the opportunity is, balancing between the US, China and Russia.”
Tune in for more in this chat with Nitin Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief Stratnewsglobal.
