EVENTS

Abstract

The presentation analyzes the change and continuity of Sino-Indian border dispute in the light of speaker’s assessment of the issue fifty years back. The following conclusions were drawn by the speaker in his study of the problem during 1964-67: India created a false dilemma concerning the legitimacy of the territorial colonial legacy; India gave up her treaty rights in Tibet in 1954 without trying to obtain Chinese endorsement of the McMahon line; Nehru believed that the Himalayas were an unsurmountable barrier for China and did not want to submit that border to negotiations. Later Nehru did not want negotiations before Chinese troops had been withdrawn from Aksai; In fact the Eastern border is a mix of the ridge of high peaks combined with locale waterier. India’s claims on the Thagla ridge and Longju are weak; Panchsheel should be a guide for personal behaviour and less for treaty language; and Burma did better with a new settlement than India by unilaterally clarifying its side of the McMahon Line. It is remarkable to note that the border dispute did not change much after fifty years, but the issue could be put on the back burner. However, it is up to China to rekindle it at any moment of political disagreement. India is better prepared, but it seems odd that the Line of Actual Control has not been clarified in a better way. Is there any chance of a swap between the claims in the Western and Eastern sectors or would this be politically impossible in both countries to settle the dispute? In general terms, China and India are now counted among the BRICS, but there is little mortar among the bricks and Asia remains a divided continent.

About the Speaker

Prof. Eekelen studied law at Utrecht University and Political Science at Princeton. In 1964 he completed his PhD from Utrecht on Indian foreign policy and the border dispute with China. He was in the Netherlands Foreign Service (1957 – 1977). He was posted in New Delhi, London, Accra, and in the NATO. From 1977 to 1988, Eekelenwas elected Member of Parliament, and served as the State Secretary for Defence and Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Defence. He also held the position of Secretary General of the Western European Union (1988 – 1994) and Senator (1995 – 2004).