<b>Shyam Saran:</b> Stemming the slide to India-China conflict

Though relations are likely to be adversarial, both countries should try to avoid confrontation

India-China relations appear to be sliding towards sharper confrontation as each country reacts to moves by the other, moves which are perceived to be hostile. We are witnessing the beginning of a cumulative action-reaction process, which could become self-reinforcing, taking the two countries in a direction neither may wish to traverse and more importantly, which is in neither country’s interest. 

China has repeatedly maintained its “technical hold” on the listing of Masood Azhar, the chief of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JuD), as a terrorist at the UN. India has accused China of indulging in double standards and flouting its own professed opposition