ISAS Insights

The latest outbreak of tensions in the Sikkim area of the India-China border can be viewed as a sign of China's hedging against India's increasing closeness to the United States. The tensions also seem to indicate that India's conventional deterrence against China may be eroding. The important lesson from the current tension is that India's strategy of controlling the smaller Himalayan states like Bhutan, as a part of its broader security strategy, no longer appears to be effective. Regardless of the repercussions of these tensions on India's broader security strategy, the real victim of the current border standoff between India and China is, arguably, Bhutan.