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China proposes border defence pact, India to go slow
China today proposed a border defence cooperation agreement to avoid any misunderstanding or flare up along the boundary but India is not rushing into it as wants to study the proposal thoroughly.
During a Secretary-level meeting here, the two sides decided to hold Army-to-Army counter-terrorism exercise in China this year. The dates would be finalised during the visit of an Indian Army delegation to China next month. The Indian delegation was led byDefence Secretary Shashikant Sharma.
At the meeting, the Chinese delegation led by its Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Qi Jianguoproposed an agreement under which troops of the two countries will not tail each other if noticed during patrolling along the disputed Line of Actual Control, sources told PTI.
The proposal also has a clause which suggests that troops of either side will not fire at each other under each other under any condition, they said.
However, the Indian side gave no commitment, the sources said. India wants to study the proposal thoroughly and do due diligence before taking any decision.
This was the second meeting between Qi, who is in-charge for Foreign Cooperation and Intelligence in the Peoples Liberation Army, and Sharma in the last three months after they met at the Annual Defence Dialogue (ADD) in January.
The Chinese side had discussed these proposals informally during the ADD also but India had then asked it to submit these points in a formal manner at a later stage.
The Army-to-Army exercise would be held after a gap of around five years. The first one was held in 2007 inKunming in China while the second edition was held in Belgaum in Karnataka in December 2008.
The exercises were stopped after tensions between the two sides over denial of visa to the then Northern ArmyCommander Lt Gen B S Jaswal in 2010 and issuing of stapled visa to residents of Jammu and Kashmir by China.
During the meeting, both sides agreed to finalise the plan of bilateral exchanges between the armed forces of India and China. It has been decided that exchanges will be conducted between the Armies, Navies and Air Forces on both sides, the Defence Ministry said in a release.
It was agreed that strengthening of exchanges between the armed forces should be carried out as a way of building mutual trust and confidence and consistent with the overall bilateral relationship between both countries, the release said.
Sharma and Qi also discussed issues relating to the regional security situation. The Chinese Lt Gen also called on Defence Minister A K Antony and conveyed that the new leadership in China attaches high priority to consolidate cooperative relations with India in all spheres.
Antony is also planning to visit China by middle of the year after which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to visit Beijing.
Meanwhile, addressing the 12th V K Krishna Menon memorial lecture, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said with China, India has a complex boundary issue,. The biggest boundary problem in the world is still unresolved but the leader of the two countries decided to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border and we have been successful in doing so for several decades, he said.
The NSA said the two countries have without waiting for a settlement of the boundary issue developed rest of the relations to the point that China today is our largest trading partner in goods and we make common core on several issues of global significance.
He said this may not be the ideal and not the best situation that you could envisage but it is certainly better than where we were before. Most importantly, both displayed the will and ability to manage differences and build on commonalities.
China today proposed a border defence cooperation agreement to avoid any misunderstanding or flare up along the boundary but India is not rushing into it as wants to study the proposal thoroughly.
During a Secretary-level meeting here, the two sides decided to hold Army-to-Army counter-terrorism exercise in China this year. The dates would be finalised during the visit of an Indian Army delegation to China next month. The Indian delegation was led byDefence Secretary Shashikant Sharma.
At the meeting, the Chinese delegation led by its Deputy Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Qi Jianguoproposed an agreement under which troops of the two countries will not tail each other if noticed during patrolling along the disputed Line of Actual Control, sources told PTI.
The proposal also has a clause which suggests that troops of either side will not fire at each other under each other under any condition, they said.
However, the Indian side gave no commitment, the sources said. India wants to study the proposal thoroughly and do due diligence before taking any decision.
This was the second meeting between Qi, who is in-charge for Foreign Cooperation and Intelligence in the Peoples Liberation Army, and Sharma in the last three months after they met at the Annual Defence Dialogue (ADD) in January.
The Chinese side had discussed these proposals informally during the ADD also but India had then asked it to submit these points in a formal manner at a later stage.
The Army-to-Army exercise would be held after a gap of around five years. The first one was held in 2007 inKunming in China while the second edition was held in Belgaum in Karnataka in December 2008.
The exercises were stopped after tensions between the two sides over denial of visa to the then Northern ArmyCommander Lt Gen B S Jaswal in 2010 and issuing of stapled visa to residents of Jammu and Kashmir by China.
During the meeting, both sides agreed to finalise the plan of bilateral exchanges between the armed forces of India and China. It has been decided that exchanges will be conducted between the Armies, Navies and Air Forces on both sides, the Defence Ministry said in a release.
It was agreed that strengthening of exchanges between the armed forces should be carried out as a way of building mutual trust and confidence and consistent with the overall bilateral relationship between both countries, the release said.
Sharma and Qi also discussed issues relating to the regional security situation. The Chinese Lt Gen also called on Defence Minister A K Antony and conveyed that the new leadership in China attaches high priority to consolidate cooperative relations with India in all spheres.
Antony is also planning to visit China by middle of the year after which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to visit Beijing.
Meanwhile, addressing the 12th V K Krishna Menon memorial lecture, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said with China, India has a complex boundary issue,. The biggest boundary problem in the world is still unresolved but the leader of the two countries decided to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border and we have been successful in doing so for several decades, he said.
The NSA said the two countries have without waiting for a settlement of the boundary issue developed rest of the relations to the point that China today is our largest trading partner in goods and we make common core on several issues of global significance.
He said this may not be the ideal and not the best situation that you could envisage but it is certainly better than where we were before. Most importantly, both displayed the will and ability to manage differences and build on commonalities.
