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Two Chinese intrusions detected last fortnight

Last Updated 05 April 2015, 20:49 IST

Chinese armed forces intruded into Indian territory twice over the past fortnight, though the troops from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) went back to their side after they were asked to move by Indian border guards.

The two incidents happened on March 20 and March 28 in Burtse and Depsang in northern Ladakh, which have witnessed a face-off between border guards from two nations in the past.

The Chinese troops reached up to the Old Patrol Point set up by the Indian Army, but went back after Indian soldiers put up banners asking them to go back, said a news agency report quoting unnamed sources.

The two intrusions come just ahead of the India-China annual defence dialogue, scheduled on April 8 and 9 in Beijing, for further expansion of bilateral military ties. Defence Secretary R K Mathur will lead the Indian delegation.

Last month, the two nations had agreed to “expand” contacts between border guards to maintain “peace and tranquillity” along the 3,488-km disputed boundary, which often witnesses transgressions.

As per data shared by the Defence Ministry with Parliament, Chinese troops entered India 1,278 times between 2010 and 2013 and 334 times till August in 2014.
The agreement came at the end of the two-day Special Representative-level talks to resolve the boundary dispute.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi were the Special Representatives who agreed to continue the boundary talks.
The absence of a clearly demarcated boundary is often cited as the principal reason for transgression by PLA troops.

The two countries recently signed a pact called the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, which paves the way for a standard operating procedure to sort out transgression issues at the local level.

In the previous Annual Defence Dialogue, the two sides had discussed prospects of joint naval exercises besides the ongoing hand-in-hand army exercises being held every year.

An IAF delegation travelled to China last month for interaction with the PLA Air Force. The defence ministry, in its annual security analysis, red-flagged China’s expanded footprint in the Indian Ocean a key security concern. Looking for a strategic partner to counter China threats, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar met his Japan counterpart last month.

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(Published 05 April 2015, 20:49 IST)

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