Notwithstanding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday raising “upfront” India's boundary concerns with visiting Chinese Premier li Keqiang, New Delhi has already given in to Beijing's demand for putting on hold its infrastructure development along the line of Actual Control (lAC).
Against the backdrop of China's latest incursion into ladakh, sources said Singh, during his hour-long restricted talks with li, maintained that without maintaining peace at the border, the relationship between the two countries will suffer. li and Singh will hold summit level talks on Monday on key international, regional and bilateral issues.
China had raised the issue of infrastructure development along the lAC during the stand-off in Depsang Valley in ladakh earlier this month. It maintained that infrastructure development including airfields and roads in the region between Karakoram and the east edge of Siachen posed a threat to its strategic interests.
In fact, the Chinese troops intruded 19 km into ladakh and engaged in a face-off to make a point about India's infrastructure development there, sources said adding indications were that New Delhi will inform Beijing that all development work have been put on freeze till the Border Defence Co-operation Agreement talks between the two countries are over.
India has upgraded some airfields including Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), Nyoma and Phuckche in ladakh region in the last few years to maintain logistics for its troops guarding the inaccessible lAC.
Most of the forward posts are air-maintained and these airfields are the lifeline as transport planes like AN-32 and the recently acquired C-130 Js from the US, land there carrying tons of supplies and troops.
Incidentally, DBO airfield is about 30 km from the face-off point and about 150 km from the Karakoram Highway and the Chinese had objected to it, sources said adding Beijing also asked India to stop its capability and capacity building to counter Beijing's vastly superior infrastructure across the lAC.
li, who arrived here on Sunday on a three-day visit, held restricted talks with Singh on all contentious issues including the boundary dispute, incursion into ladakh and China's proposal to build three dams on the Brahmaputra river. Singh is said to have also stressed the need to address the trade deficit which was highly in favour of China. For his part, li raised the issue of Tibet and India's support to the Dalai lama.
Singh later hosted a dinner for li at 7 Race Course Road. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and senior BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley besides SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav attended the dinner.
“Everything is on the table,” Joint Secretary (East Asia) Gautam Bambawale said when asked about the issues to be discussed between the leaders of the two countries, which are witnessing differences on crucial matters like boundary, waters and market access under economic ties.
“The two Prime Ministers would talk about these subjects. Since the incursion is a recent occurrence it will be discussed,” Bambawale said.
Sources said the issue of breach of status quo in ladakh region will be discussed and India will press that the Special Representatives of India and China, who are scheduled to meet in the next few months, take it up in detail to avoid such occurrences in future.
China had proposed the Border Defence Co-operation Agreement four months ago but India did not respond at that point of time. However, the impasse in Depsang Valley revived it and India is now willing to hold parleys as indicated by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid during his recent visit to Beijing on May 9.
The proposal included coordinated patrolling by the two countries in disputed areas all along the 4,500-km-long lAC and more interaction between the local commanders of the two countries to avoid any unsavory incident like ladakh in future.
The Border Defence Co-operation Agreement, if inked, will be overseen by the Foreign Ministries of the two countries. India has suggested some counter proposals and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by the Prime Minister will take the final call after consulting all the stakeholders including the Army and the Home Ministry.
Consultations between the stakeholders are now on, as China wanted India to indicate its patrolling schedule in various sectors along the lAC, and the distance by the patrol to be covered in the disputed areas.
The Defence establishment is wary of this proposal as it would give advantage to China and tie down the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). The para-military force is deployed in ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, parts of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh with more than 200 posts alone manning the lAC in ladakh.
India has been pressing for clarification and confirmation on the lAC in the Indo-China border areas pending the final settlement. Noting that in the agreements worked out in 1993 and 1996 there were clarifications on the differing perceptions on lAC and exchanges on it, sources said somehow in later years, this went off the table from the Chinese side, probably because there was a sense that it may be taken as a default boundary.
“There is a need to revive this particular subject to prevent incidents of this nature. Clarifications we really seek are imperative and are required. (Otherwise) This (Depsang incursion) kind of incidents could recur. This is something we would certainly flag,” sources said.