Mathou, Thierry <br/><br/>
The Himalayas: China's  "New Border" 

 -  2007.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 86 
<br/><br/> This article focuses on the significance of the Himalayas in China's regional politics. Although this region is still affected by factors of tension in Nepal, Kashmir, northeast India, Bhutan, and Tibet, and despite unsettled border disputes with India, China has decided to implement in this area a policy of cooperation and openness within the framework of its new frontier diplomacy. This policy sheds new light on the situation of the Tibet Autonomous Region that could turn into a bridge between China and South Asia. It is also an opportunity to consider the Himalayas as a coherent regional entity whose strategic position between the two giants of Asia is one of the major parameters of geopolitics on this continent, though it is rarely studied as such. This article analyzes the objectives, stakes, consequences, and limits of these new frontier politics.