US resolution on McMahon line: India opposes any 3rd party role

New Delhi had in 2020 cold-shouldered US President’s offer to mediate between India and China

Even as a resolution introduced in the United States Senate recognised the McMahon Line as the boundary between China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and India’s Arunachal Pradesh, New Delhi remains opposed to any role by any third party in resolving its territorial dispute with the neighbouring communist country.

The bipartisan resolution introduced by Republican Senator Bill Hagerty and Democrat Senator Jeff Merkley in the US Senate endorses New Delhi’s claim that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. But its recognition of the McMahon Line as the boundary between India and China is not consistent with New Delhi’s position on the issue, sources told DH.

New Delhi had in 2020 cold-shouldered US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between India and China to resolve the military stand-off. “There is no reason for India to change its position now and allow the US or any other third party to play a role in its boundary negotiations with China,” a source said.

Another source aware of India’s negotiations with China for the resolution of the boundary dispute pointed out that New Delhi’s official claim line did not tally with the McMahon Line and at some places went beyond it.

The 1914 Simla Agreement recognized the McMahon Line as the boundary between Tibet and British India. The Republic of China, which is the predecessor state of the People’s Republic of China, was obviously not a party to the agreement. The PRC, which occupied Tibet in the 1950s, never recognized the McMahon Line.

China claims approximately 90,000 sq km of territory in Arunachal Pradesh of India as its own and about 2,000 sq km in Himachal and Uttarakhand. India claims that China is illegally occupying about 38,000 sq km of its territory in Aksai Chin.