DM finished reading the thick 100+ page file that contained bulk of agreements signed between India and China, closed his eyes and leaned back on his chair. He had been working like a mule for last two weeks and it was the first moment in many days when he felt that he could relax. Even then, he couldn't help but think about the deal that was about to be finalised with Chinese. Initially, Chinese negotiations team was really stubborn and inflexible, but Indians were quite a match for them and had succeeded in getting a favourable agreement after mostly acrimonious talks that lasted almost a week. But owing to unprecedented extraordinary circumstances, it was finalized in a record time.
As was expected, the talks had started in a very hostile environment. Chinese armed forces had suffered horrendous losses without much to show for it. Additionally, they had been forced to cede ground to a supposedly numerically and technically inferior enemy. Their humiliation was made even worse by the capture of two nuclear missiles along with 100s of soldiers and the capture of an intact nuclear submarine followed by sinking of another two even before the hostilities had begun. Unlike the conflict in J&K-Tibet area that followed later, these incidents had been paraded, humiliating China, by Indians on world stage. PLA officers which formed the bulk of the Chinese negotiations team were none too happy for that. They had shown their displeasure over what was termed as “lack of maturity and foresight" by India, which was promptly rebutted by their Indian counterparts.
As was expected, Chinese had brought up every outstanding issue including the status of Tibetan rebels, Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin etc., most of which had little to do with the task at hand. These tactics were meant to throw Indians off the guard but the Indians too had good experience in such matters and the negotiations had dragged on for days before USA and Russia had put in all of their resources forcing the two belligerent nations to hammer out a compromise. Chinese were loathe to admit that India had successfully used tactical nuclear weapons on four of their bases and had vigorously denied all such reports. India on its part maintained a stony silence. But within days of the attack, proof to this effect had been released in public domain. There was much brouhaha in the usual circles, bringing even more pressure to get an effective ceasefire.
The Chinese, who had agreed to the Indian claim on Pakistan occupied part of J&K earlier, but baulked and nearly walked out when Indians staked their claim on Shaksgam Valley and Aksai Chin. Indians on their part pointed out that Shaksgam valley was more or less under Indian control and so was almost 40% of Aksai Chin. Indian offensive had been halted just a few 10s of KMs from the vital Chinese National Highway 219. But Chinese in spite of putting in best of their efforts had been unable to push back Indians from any front except a couple.
After much heated and prolonged talks, Chinese had agreed to hand over control of Shaksgam Valley to India, in exchange of Indian pull back in Aksai Chin which was hotly contested by Indians leading to another deadlock. This was broken off after much haggling and heart burn on both sides.
After many such deadlocks, gists of some important agreements were:
Flames And Arrows Page 53