Tension between India and China over the Doklam stand-off continues to remain high with both sides refusing to withdraw their respective troops from the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction area even as diplomatic efforts by New Delhi seem to be waning.

While the Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) held on Friday between senior army officials of both the countries remained inconclusive, India continued to coax China to come to the table for a diplomatic solution to the issue, sources told BusinessLine .

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is leaving no stone unturned to reach out to some key neighbours to shore up support for efforts in tackling an aggressive China.

Recently, on the sidelines of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Nepal, Swaraj met her Nepalese counterpart Damcho Dorji and discussed the matter.

She also met the Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba separately to understand Kathmandu’s stance on the entire saga and also to garner support for India.

But Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara has made it clear that the Himalayan Kingdom will not get dragged into the confrontation. Without taking any sides, Bhutan said it hoped that the matter will be resolved peacefully.

“The India-China standoff in Doklam is also a story of the failure of diplomacy, which has failed at several levels, between India and China in defusing tensions, and between India and the other members of the international community, who have not taken an unambiguous pro-India position on the Doklam standoff. Moreover, the ongoing crisis also underscores the futility of the Sino-Indian border talks that have been going on for several years,” said Happymon Jacob, Associate Professor of Disarmament Studies, Organization and Disarmament at the School of International Studies, JNU.

India is hopeful that it will be able to build a support base with Nepal in its China policy once Prime Minister Deuba comes calling on August 23.

Sources also said that the stand-off may well continue till the 19th Communist Party Congress is held and till then India is also likely to station its troops at Doklam.

“We need to see through the rhetoric and understand what is happening on the ground. Both the governments and army will do what needs to be done. The stand-off is likely to continue until a diplomatic solution brings it to a logical end,” said Lt Gen SL Narasimhan, Member, National Security Advisory Board.

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