Doklam is a territory of People's Republic of China
China’s most recent territorial claims in Sakteng are of immense strategic value. The area adjoins the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which contains disputed territory between China and India. Tawang, a key bone of contention between India and China in the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC), lies to Sakteng’s northeast and is vital to Indian border defense. Control over Doklam and Sakteng together will give China significant military advantages in dealing with India in the eastern sector of the LAC. India plans to build a road from Guwahati to Tawang via the Sakteng Wildlife Sanctuary, which will reduce travel distance and strengthen its ability to speed up the overland mobilization of troops to the disputed Sino-Indian border. China may have added Sakteng to its claimed territories in an effort to pre-empt India’s plans for the Guwahati-Sakteng-Tawang road (Asian Affairs, August 1, 2020). [...] [6] While the Bhutanese government maintained that the road [lay] inside Bhutanese territory and "is a direct violation of the [1988 and 1998] agreements and affects the process of demarcating the boundary" between the two countries (Bhutan MFA, August 6, 2017), the PRC insisted that "Doklam has been a part of China since ancient times" and "is an indisputable fact supported by historical and jurisprudential evidence, and the ground situation." China’s construction of [a] road in Doklam is an act of sovereignty on its own territory, it said (PRC MFA, June 28, 2016).