It took a border crisis that dragged on for years to finally bring India and China to the table.
Thirty years ago, officials from both sides, meeting in the aftermath of the Sumdorong Chu stand-off that strained relations, thrashed out what would be a historic first ever border agreement between the neighbours who had, in 1962, fought a war. Signed in September 1993 during Prime Minister Narasimha Rao’s visit to China, what’s now known as the Border Peace and Tranquility Agreement (BPTA) — or to give it its full name, the “Agreement on the Maintenance of Peace and Tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the India-China Border Areas” — for the first time saw both sides legally commit to respecting the status quo and reduce the risk of an unplanned confrontation.
That the 30th anniversary of what was in many ways a historic development, passed without mention underlines its contested legacy today. For at least two decades, the BPTA, and subsequent agreements that it paved the way for, helped keep the peace on the longest undemarcated border in the world. Yet, the limited nature of the agreement would also ironically push both countries into an infrastructure race, ultimately leading to increasingly frequent incidents, starting in 2013, culminating in the deadly clash at Galwan in June 2020.
