by Ralph Jennings
China and India are expected to resolve diplomatically a flap this week over New Delhi's drone that crashed in Chinese territory and steer away from another military standoff like one earlier in the year at Doklam Plateau, the worst of its kind in decades.
The two countries are Asia's largest by population as well as military might. They dispute two tracts of land along their rugged Himalayan border, where for about 70 days starting in June, Indian troops faced Chinese counterparts in a tense border standoff. It was near here that the drone went down.
Although China angrily accused India of an "intrusion" after the unmanned vehicle crashed, it made a diplomatic protest with no sign of an army buildup. It further suggested that India "work with China to maintain peace and stability," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday.
India's Press Information Bureau said Thursday the drone had “lost contact with the ground control due to some technical problem” during a routine mission. Hinting at talks rather than troops to settle things with China, it added that “the matter is being dealt with in accordance with the established protocols through institutional mechanisms to deal with situations along the India-China border areas.”
Since the mid-year military standoff on the Doklam Plateau, senior leaders from the two sides -- as high up as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping -- have met during at least three regional summits. At the BRICS Summit 2017 in China in September, Xi and Modi said good relations were in the interest of both.
"I don't think that this (drone) issue will escalate tensions," said Mohan Malik, Asian security professor at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu. "It should pass with a diplomatic fix, because the Indian side has reportedly acknowledged that its drone crossed over to Chinese territory as it 'lost control' of it."
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