A short and confused fight broke out between Indian and Chinese troops at the Pangong Tso lake on 5 May 2020. The lake is located over 4 km above the sea level in the Himalayan region of Ladakh. Several media reported that the incident injured 11 soldiers from both sides.
Three days later another fight between them erupted at Nathu La Pass bordering the Indian state of Sikkim and the issue was resolved at the local commander level.
After a few weeks from 5 May, the India-China border has seen soldiers from both sides are increasing military presence along several disputed areas.
To give these events a twist, on 27 May 2020, the US President Donald Trump said on Twitter that “the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute”. And his statement brings the matter to global attention despite people are confined with fear of COVID-19 outbreak.
The crisis erupted when China is being pressurized by the US through the alleged trade war followed by COVID-19 related crisis of mistrust. Besides, the South China Sea dispute is being fuelled coupled with the tension in Hong Kong about the national security law. Also, as the global industrial hub, the Chinese economy is in trouble. Many analysts believe that the Indian move is a concerted effort with the US to push China further into the encircling crisis. To show the world that India is balancing both with the US and China, Indian pushes its soldiers inside China in summer with US nod and gets back when China forces to do so or before winter.
In very recent history, China and India successfully solved their Doklam standoff bilaterally. Their leaders met twice in two informal summits in Wuhan and Chennai in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The special representatives’ talks on the boundary dispute between India and China represent an important channel of communication aimed at mitigating border standoffs and other recent issues.
If we take decaying power of the US into account, it can be said that the recent border dispute between neighboring India and China will be solved peacefully with few positional adjustments since they share 3,488 km border. Hence, with a happy ending, it can be seen as a periodical border drama between India and China in which the US is looking for twists.