Sudha Ramachandran reports in the Asia Times, from Bangalore:
India’s frontier with China is bristling with tension. Barely two weeks after the two countries reaffirmed commitment to existing mechanisms for dispute settlement, and agreed to maintain peace and tranquility along their border, a major Chinese incursion has taken place into India’s Sikkim state.
On June 16, Chinese troops came more than a kilometer into Sikkim’s northernmost point – a 2.1-km sliver of land called Finger Point. Only a month ago, Chinese soldiers had threatened to demolish stone structures in the area. That warning was subsequently echoed and endorsed by Chinese officials.
Incursions and skirmishes are frequent along the 4,057-km-long Sino-Indian border – an area that has not been demarcated on maps or delineated on the ground. India and China fought a border war in 1962, which India lost. Besides a fuzzy border, the two sides lay claim to chunks of territory.
