The damage the 10-week troop Doklam standoff inflicted on the already frayed India-China relationship will not be easy to repair.
Indeed, the China-India divide over border, water, trade, maritime and other issues, including transportation and economic corridors, may only widen.
There is also the risk that the end of the face-off could prove just a temporary respite from border tensions before confrontation flares anew.
Rival
China’s record under communist rule shows that it has at times retreated only to open a new front in the same area or elsewhere.
Still, India – like Japan before it – has shown that if a neighbour is willing to stand up to China, it can be made to back away.
Doklam is a defining event: For the first time since China’s success in expanding its control in the South China Sea, a rival power has stalled Chinese construction activity to change the status quo on a disputed territory.
Beijing was left with little choice but to negotiate a deal after India showed that it would not be cowed.
Repeated Chinese warnings to India to back down or face dire consequences fell on deaf ears.