 Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we are going to discuss about the recent developments vis-à-vis the doclam issue and to discuss the issue we are joined by Prabhupurakas, the editor-in-chief of NewsClick. So, Prabhi, Ministry of External Affairs has issued a press statement and India and China have agreed to disengage when it comes to the entire issue of doclam. So, what does the press statement basically say and what does it mean? Well, I think we need to look at what the Indian side has said. This is the press statement of MEA that you are referring to, Ministry of External Affairs press statement and also what the Chinese spokesperson has said. If we take both these together, there is certainly a sense that the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with India and China have been having has come down. Therefore, it is I think a very welcome development. We shouldn't talk about as a lot of the Indian media and possibly the Chinese media is talking about who has won and who has lost. I think if India and China do get into war, everybody will lose and therefore, this is a victory for everybody. That's the first thing to do to look at the statement, not in terms, very narrow terms as if this is a football match going on over doclam plateau or doclam pass and so on. So, I think this is a very, very welcome development. Both sides have at least negotiated that they clearly have with backroom negotiations. The Indian press statement does talk about it and therefore, there has been an agreed, shall we say, disengagement as the Indian press statement says. It's also clear that India has withdrawn the troops from where they had entered what would be called the disputed territory. They had crossed from Sikkim over into what is the basic area, what is called the tri-junction between India, China, India which is Sikkim really, Bhutan and China. As you know, Sikkim was originally not a part of India. It was a part of India, came to India and joined India in the 70s. So, this tri-junction location is a source of the dispute. It's good that the Indian side has now gone back to where it was before. We have to see whether the Chinese road building activities, which is what seems to have triggered the Indian side crossing over the border, that will now be stopped or not. That remains to be seen because it was the road building activity on the Chinese side of whether regarded disputed or not and leaving that out. That really seems to have been the issue. We'll have to see whether that is done or not. The spokesperson from the Chinese side have said that China will continue to assert its sovereignty over its territory which is a relatively neutral sounding statement. It could mean anything at the moment but it has also registered its Indian troops which have withdrawn from the position they had been in earlier. So, I think in that sense we'll need to look at how the details of it works out but I would say these are very minor issues. The real issue is that we have averted what is of eyeball to eyeball confrontation which could have spilt at any point into a much larger border war and these are two nuclear weapons powers, 2.6 billion people, 2.8 billion people. This is almost half the world's population. So, I think this has to be welcomed by everybody and one should not play narrow one-upmanship which seems to be now what the Indian media and maybe the Chinese media will do. So, I think this is something that we should really register. An important point probably because as you say there was an aggressive campaign from both the sides going on be it India or China and they even referred to the 1962 wars both the ministers different spokesperson. So, do you think it's narrowed down of that stand also they have lowered down their pitch and what implications will it have on the South Asian I mean the South Asian area because India has been having differences with Pakistan while China is getting closer to them they have disputes on the South China Sea as well and also the global politics because India is getting much closer to USA while USA and China are having differences. Well, it's a it's a rather complex issue because the geostrategic issue in Afghanistan Pakistan India China and South China Sea are really complex of issues is not one issue. It's clear if you look at the larger geopolitics that the United States and India have been coming closer while China has come closer to Pakistan and more than that the relations between China and the United States could be heading for some kind of economic war if you will we already saw some tendencies regarding North Korea. So, there is obviously a sense of competition that's going to develop as the two largest economic powers in the world which is what United States and China is and the foremost military power which is United States and that's why China and Russia have been coming together to really block that. Leaving that aside it's very clear that India has been coming closer to United States over the last three years and this has been the drift of the Modi government's policies. It started by trying to be friends with Pakistan trying to be friends with China making grandstanding gestures but without any preparation of what this means it degenerated very quickly into one up and ship and savor at link and that has not taken India's diplomacy anywhere and we have also in the past news click has commented on it that India's foreign policy for the last three years has been essentially India getting into American corner and not having any flexibility with its neighbors Pakistan and China of course being the two key ones. It's also clear that India's relations with Russia is no longer what it was. So, given all of that I think we need to understand that there is no sign that this particular case of the Dokla border the Dokla and Plateau the tri-junction whatever we call it. If all of this put together there is no sense that India is reviewing its geo-strategic options I think that we will have to see. It seems still to be in a India Pakistan's relations are in a state of deep freeze if not fire. So, that is one part. The Chinese relations really reached rock bottom we'll have to see in the bricks the meeting that's going to take place very shortly whether India does make some gestures China make some gestures and build on what has been the shall we say the eyeball to eyeball confrontation being brought down whether they can build on that. But larger strategic issues India's does not seem to have re-evaluated what its position vis-a-vis China Pakistan and the United States is. It does appear that the India's geo-strategic alliance which is a growing one now with also defense treaties is going to continue and if that happens then I think the relations with China and particularly with China I don't think are going to improve. So, that's something that we still need to see that's all the time we have for today probably and as I'm sure as these things proceed will be coming back to you on these issues. Thanks a lot. Thank you for watching NewsClick.