China's border action can lead to war: Defence experts

Criticising China for constructing a road inside Bhutanese territory, the defence experts on Monday said that if the former does not withdraw its move then this could lead to a war.

"Bhutan is a small country and it is their extreme concern that the Chinese have infiltrated into their area and have started constructing a motorable road. Bhutan has serious objections to it and has told China to pull back to their own position as they existed. If they do not pull back, this could result into war," defence expert P. K. Sehgal told ANI.

He added that there was a written agreement between China and Bhutan of 1988 and 1998 where it was stated that no unilateral alteration will be done till the border is delineated adding, the Chinese must withdraw at all cost.

Meanwhile, another defence expert Ranjeet Rai said that whether or not there will be a war is a very difficult question.

"Certainly there is tremendous tension in the area of Doklam which has not taken place for many years after 1962," he added.

The residents of Bhutan have stated that this action by Beijing could lead to war and cautioned the latter not to transgress Bhutan's territorial integrity and sovereignty.

The locals in Bhutan are severely critical about China proposing to construct the road inside Bhutanese territory, which they say is a direct violation of the agreements and affect the process of demarcating the boundary between the two countries.

Bhutan had last month issued a demarche to the Chinese envoy in India, asking Beijing to restore the status quo in the Doklam area where Chinese soldiers tried to unilaterally build a road towards their army camp in the Zomplri area. China who refers to Doklam as Donglang was part of Chinese territory "since ancient times and it doesn't belong to Bhutan.