India believed that Panchsheel pact settled border
- “[Jawaharlal] Nehru probably knew that we had something like the McMahon Line in the east, and we had some kind of claim in the Ladakh area, but it was not clearly defined. That is why he wanted to go in for the Panchsheel Agreement.
- Once Tibet was occupied by China, “India gave up those privileges”.
- In 1954, India recognised Tibet as part of China, and both countries signed the Panchsheel Agreement. With this, India assumed that it had settled its northern border and the only area not settled through a formal treaty, from India’s perspective, rested on the Panchsheel Agreement.