India to use diplomacy to end face-off with China

India has once again stressed using diplomatic channels to end its military face-off with China in western Bhutan, even as the communist country continued to raise its pitch.

Briefing the members of a parliamentary panel on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar is learnt to have ruled out the possibility of India being “pushed into armed action” with China at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan. He, according to sources, however, acknowledged that China had been unusually aggressive in its rhetoric against India ever since the face-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army started on June 18.

Jaishankar was briefing the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, a member of the committe, also attended the briefing and, according to  sources, asked the foreign secretary if China was trying to intimidate Bhutan as it shared a special and unique relation with India.

The foreign secretary is learnt to have told the parliamentary panel that officials of the Ministry of External Affairs in individual discussions conveyed to the diplomats of the foreign missions based in New Delhi that India would continue to use its diplomatic channels with China to resolve the face-off in Bhutan. He reiterated that New Delhi wanted Beijing to drop its plan to construct the road at Doklam Plateau near India-China-Bhutan tri-junction boundary point and restore the pre-June 16 status quo.

The diplomats of the Chinese government purportedly briefed the foreign missions in Beijing that China’s patience was not indefinite and India must withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau immediately as it an integral part of the communist country. An article on China’s state-run Global Times warned India of an “all-out confrontation” if it did not withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau.