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| India - Arunachal Pradesh (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki) |
By Ankit Panda
Just a week after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's trip to Beijing, where he signed a Border Defense Cooperation Agreement, China has reminded India of its other border conflict: Arunachal Pradesh. The Hindu reports that China opened a new highway that links Medog, Tibet’s so-called “last isolated county,” with the rest of China. The Global Times called Medog “the last roadless county in China” – it did not mention India at all.
The opening of the highway is not a border provocation in the same way as the Daulat Beg Oldi incident earlier this year. The entire highway runs squarely through Chinese territory. However, in August 2013, Chinese troops had camped out for two days within territory that India perceives to be part of Arunachal Pradesh. Most recently, prior to Manmohan Singh’s trip to China, two athletes from the disputed region were given stapled visas to travel to China for a tournament.
Chinese developments aside, India has other reasons – many of its own making – to be concerned about the future of Arunachal Pradesh. India has faced an image problem in Arunachal Pradesh because the local population has a tendency (PDF) to compare the India-provided infrastructure to the vastly superior Chinese infrastructure just across the border in Tibet. The North-East has also largely been ignored as a development priority given India’s populist politics, which bank on winning electorates primarily to the west of the Siliguri Corridor.
Read the full story at The Diplomat