Book Description

India, founded as a result of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – established by the leadership of the victor-Mao of Chinese civil war in 1949 – were forced to face the fact that borders between India and PRC in the Himalayas were not demarcated. As India took over the British heritage in the area, border problems that had been pushed into the background due to conjunctural developments resurfaced. Having embraced the idea of ancient China by Mao’s PRC, a hard to overcome psychological barrier was created between two countries, led to a vortex of crises stemming from the border dispute. PRC and India fought in 1962 because of this problem and had a limited armed conflict in 1967. After a small-scale armed conflict in 1975, two nuclear weapons states proceeded to mitigate risks of unintended small- scale armed conflicts or crises turning into a full-scale war. Within this framework, due to protocols signed in accordance with parleys started in the 1980s, neither firearms nor bladed articles were used during the border crises since 1975 to this day and there were no casualties until June 15, 2020, Galwan Valley “unique” clash. Diplomatic negotiations, held after this clash did not provide a road map to end the crisis. Normalization in Galwan Valley could only be achieved through the mid of February 2021 with the help of global developments. Although troops were withdrawn from the disputed parts of Galwan Valley, parties could not come to an agreement on other regions. As the snow melted, the armies of both countries reinforced their borders. After the 2020 clash, in spite of messaging each other through media, proxies, and allies, both countries did not budge from their claims on borders. There are no implications of change on both parties’ classical discourse and strategical objectives. On the contrary, both countries are even more honed against each other. The Himalayas, the hot front of the new cold war is still a conflict zone. The biggest impediment to a new crisis in this region is the coronavirus pandemic. As the regional and global competition of two emerging countries continue, the PRC seems to be getting the upper hand by tackling the coronavirus pandemic and impelling its economy. By acquiring Russian Federation’s support, the PRC has been challenging QUAD alliance on several fronts and India in the Himalayas as well. Nevertheless, the hurricanes of tides that will face the PRC after the pandemic, are still being sown both by the West and QUAD alliance. The border dispute between the PRC and India is the most heated front of the cold war whose groundwork has been laid and probably, in the following period the first spark will be lit in the Himalayas.