JOIN US In the absence of a well demarcated boundary between India and China, Indian troops also intrude inside Chinese territory leading to a face-off between the troops, even though these “face-off are peaceful”, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday.
The intrusion along the 3,488-km long Sino-India border was not one-sided as a section of the media claims. Rather it happens from either side with Beijing, too, informing New Delhi about intrusion by Indian troops into disputed areas.
Even though the Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police always admit intrusion by Indian troops in private, this is possibly for the first time, the defence minister has admitted in Parliament after stressing there was no question of India ceding any part of its territory to China.
But a large tract of the border is disputed with the two sides having different perceptions about their Line of Actual Control. The two countries were following a 1976 agreement on the patrolling pattern and continues to patrol up to the Indian limits in areas like Depsang Bulge, Pangong Tso lake and Chumar. No area was ceded to Chinese troops, he said denying media reports of India losing access to 640 sq km area in Ladakh.
Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board Shyam Saran visited Ladakh between August 2 to August 9 and submitted a report to the PMO on various aspects of infrastructure improvement in Ladakh.
“Shyam Saran has not stated in the report that China has occupied or has denied access to India to any part of Indian territory. I would like to assure the House that there is no question of India ceding to China any part of Indian territory,” Antony said in both Houses of Parliament.
The issue was raised in the Lok Sabha by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav based on reports carried by a section of the media in the last two days. Saran had denied the reports on Thursday.
As the border is disputed, Antony said the two nations were working on “another effective mechanism” to maintain peace and tranquillity at the Sino-India border till the disputes are settled. He admitted China fared better in improving the border infrastructure but India was not catching up.
For the last 10 years, the government was sprucing up the infrastructure near the Chinese border, which includes building new roads and railway links and operationalising advanced landing grounds (ALG).