Meeting for the first time ever since the Modi regime came to power, the Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China on Tuesday agreed to take concrete steps to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas till a final arrangement is made.
Agreeing that calm borders was a pre-requisite for continued growth of bilateral relations, both sides decided to expand contacts between their security forces as part of confidence building measures. The SRs stressed on effective use of Border Defence Cooperation Agreement signed on October 23, 2013, which lays down ways to enhance understanding between the defence forces and procedures to be followed where there is no common understanding of the lAC.
“The talks were marked by cordiality and candour and were held in a constructive and forward looking atmosphere,” External Affairs Ministry said at the end of talks, which were co-chaired by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi. This was the 18th round of talks of SRs on boundary issue.
During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in September 2014 stressed on quickly resolving the boundary issue by demarcating the lAC. But despite highest political interference by both India and China to resolve boundary dispute between the two countries, it will still be a long haul as demarcating the boundary or the lAC on ground would be a political call. And even though the demarcation would help militarily but it will need a fresh political thinking in telling the country where actually our troops hold ground.
Till that happens, the two sides agreed to build on the momentum provided by President Xi’s visit to expand relations in areas like railways, smart cities, vocational education, skill development, clean and renewable energy and manufacturing sector..
later, Yang Jiechi called on Modi and conveyed greetings of President Jinping and Premier li Keqiang. Modi said he was looking forward to his visit to China to interact with the top leadership, while hoping it will have concrete outcomes and take the bilateral relationship to a new level.