Despite signing the Border Defence Co-Operation Agreement (BDCA) with India to maintain peace on the line of Actual Control(lAC), China violated the pact in June this year when its troops tailed the Indian patrol in Eastern ladakh. Taking a serious note of it, India then lodged a strong protest with China through proper channels. Giving this information in the lok Sabha on Friday, Defence Arun Jaitley said, “Since signing of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), Chinese troops, have on one occasion, violated the provision by tailing our patrol in Eastern ladakh on June 2. A protest was lodged against this violation in the flag meeting held on July 15.” India and China signed the BDCA to maintain peace and tranquility along the lAC in October last year after a 20-day stand-off between the two armies in Depsang Valley in May. As part of the pact, the two sides agreed that they shall not follow or tail patrols of the other sides in areas where there is no common understanding of the lAC in the border areas.
The other salient part of the agreement is that it the two armies come to a face to face situation, both sides shall exercise maximum restraint, refrain from an provocative action, not use force or threaten to use force and treat each other with courtesy and prevent exchange of fire or armed conflict.The setting up of hotline between the Director General of Military Operations(DGMO) of two countries was also proposed and process is now on to have such a mechanism. It will be on the lines of a similar arrangement between India and Pakistan wherein the two DGMOs talk to each other once a week to discuss any issues. After signing the BDCA, the UPA government had warned that the pact was not a guarantee that incursions or transgressions would stop but would help in addressing issues along the border.Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag will visit ladakh later this month to take stock of the situation on the lAC in the wake recent incursions by the Chinese troops there. He will also visit Siachen in a bid to boost the morale of the troops deployed there.