JOIN USAhead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, the border dispute between the two neighbours came to the fore once again with a fresh face-off between their soldiers along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC), which separates the two nations in the absence of a mutually accepted boundary.
The boundary dispute and assertions of mutually conflicting territorial claims are likely to continue to plague New Delhi’s ties with Beijing, even as Xi’s meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and Thursday will give a boost to the bilateral trade and economic ties.
A proposed agreement to ease travel between the two countries is unlikely to be signed during the Chinese President’s visit, as Beijing is not ready to accept New Delhi’s demand for dropping its policy of issuing “stapled visas” to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh.
Officers in the Indian Army and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had a flag-meeting at Spanggur Gap in the Chumar sector of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. The flag-meeting was held in the wake of a purported attempt by the Chinese PLA and People’s Armed Police Force personnel to lay a road in the disputed areas along the LAC, which triggered protests from the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force.
The Chinese soldiers and civilians also of late purportedly tried to stop development works at a village, which India claims to be on its side of the LAC near Demchok in the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. The border guards of India and China also had a three-week-long stand-off at Depsang Bulge in Ladakh just ahead of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to New Delhi in May 2013. “As regards to issues on the table, sure there are unresolved issues, including the boundary question.
Yes, it will be discussed (during Xi’s meeting with Modi),” official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs told journalists on Monday. “The key expectation (from the visit) is that we address issues of interests and concerns to each other. The path towards solution is based on a beginning of addressing those issues.”
Modi will receive Xi in Ahmedabad on Wednesday and the two will witness signing of some agreements before jointly visiting Sabarmati Ashram, where Mahatma Gandhi had once lived. They will again meet formally in New Delhi next day after Xi is accorded a ceremonial welcome by his host President Pranab Mukherjee.
Officials in the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi remained tightlipped about the latest face-offs along the LAC as well as the flag-meeting held on Monday. The Ministry of External Affairs did not deny the incidents, but said that “sentinels” guarding the nation’s border were capable of dealing with any such situation.
Sources in New Delhi told Deccan Herald that the latest incidents had not yet warranted diplomatic interventions, and the local army officials of India and China were expected to be able to resolve the situations through mutually agreed mechanisms.
India and China inked a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement in October 2013. The agreement provides for flag-meetings between the local commanders of the two countries’ border guards as a mechanism to seek clarification and resolve any “doubtful situation” arising out of “any activity by either side in border areas where there is no common understanding” of the LAC.
The Chinese President’s visit to India will see Beijing is committing over $ 5 billion investment by its companies in two industrial parks to be set up in Gujarat and Maharashtra.