Perhaps one of the biggest learnings from the 72-day standoff at Doklam is the need for India to reach out more to the people of Bhutan.
Just over a year ago in Tashkent, President Xi Jinping had turned down Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s request to allow India into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). India did not fulfill all the criteria, Xi had smiled and told Modi. Today, as the two leaders meet on the margins of the BRICS Summit in Xiamen, the mutual withdrawal of their troops from Doklam on August 28 may or may not be top of mind. But the Prime Minister will certainly have reason to press Xi’s hand just a bit more firmly.
The fact is that around South Asia, including in Pakistan, there is grudging admiration at the way India has handled China in Doklam. By first withdrawing in the morning of August 28, and then allowing China to save face by withdrawing its own personnel and roadbuilding equipment the same afternoon, Modi has demonstrated that Delhi can stand up to Beijing with firmness and maturity, with a minimum of fuss.
To be sure, Xi, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has read his Mao Tse-Tung — and is aware of Mao’s theory of strategic retreat. He knows how, in December 1930, Mao and Chu Teh had ordered a withdrawal of the communist revolutionary forces to the hills, and then crushed the Kuomintang forces that rushed in after them.
Source: indianexpress.com