Vijay Gokhale, the man who defused Doklam crisis

Vijay K Gokhale, a senior diplomat, just got a new feather in his cap even as he prepares to sign off as India’s ambassador to China.

Gokhale, an officer of Indian Foreign Service of 1981 batch, played a key role in India-China negotiations to resolve the face off between Indian Army and Chinese People’s Liberation Army at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan.

It was his last major task in Beijing as his tenure as India’s envoy to China is coming to its end.

He will soon take over, as the Secretary (Economic Relations) at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) headquarters in New Delhi. 

Since 2003, the Special Representatives of India and China have been leading bilateral negotiations to resolve the long-pending boundary dispute between the two nations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi are at present Special Representatives of the two governments for boundary negotiations. But soon after the face off started in Doklam Plateau, China told India that it was out of the purview of the Special Representatives.

Beijing argued that the Sikkim Section of the boundary was already settled and Doval and Yang were mandated to negotiate only on the disputed stretches of the border.

Beijing also declined to acknowledge the July 18 meeting as the one between the Special Representatives of the two nations for the boundary negotiations.

Rejecting Beijing’s plea, New Delhi insisted that while the status of Sikkim as an integral part of India had been settled, the boundary of Sikkim had to be demarcated by the Special Representatives of the two nations.

However, to resolve the face off expeditiously, New Delhi assigned Gokhale to lead the negotiations forefront of the negotiations with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chinese Government in Beijing.

Senior officials at the Embassy of India in Beijing and at the MEA headquarters in New Delhi were to his support.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, who was India’s envoy to China earlier, oversaw the negotiations from New Delhi. He also led New Delhi’s efforts to reach out to US, Japan and other nations and to explain India’s stand on the issue of the face-off with China. 

Doval led the coordination between Prime Minister’s Office, MEA and Indian Army. Gokhale stood his ground in the negotiations in Beijing.

He conveyed to the officials of Chinese Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that New Delhi had to send troops to stop construction of the road by the People’s Liberation Army personnel in western Bhutan as its agreement with Thimphu had required it to do so.

He finally made his Chinese counterparts agree to suspend construction of the road in exchange for the withdrawal of troops by Indian Army.