India and China on Saturday decided to seek a fair and rational solution to their border dispute as they focused on the proposed Border Defence Cooperation Agreement to avert incursions like the one witnessed in leh region last month.
This emerged at the end of the two-day 16th round of border talks between the Special Representatives of the two countries--National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Yang Jeichi--here on Saturday.
The talks, which were held against the backdrop of the recent incursion of Chinese troops near ladakh, covered a host of issues bedevilling the relations between the two countries.
They were held in a productive, constructive and forward-looking atmosphere, a brief statement put out by Indian embassy here after the talks said.
Menon and Yang also discussed the maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas including possible additional confidence building measures, ways and means of strengthening existing mechanisms for consultation and coordination on border affairs and methodology to enhance the efficiency of communications between the two sides, the statement said.
A Chinese statement said Border disputes between China and India will be resolved through peaceful negotiations, with agreement to seek a fair and rational solution acceptable to both sides.
“The two sides agree to give full play to the (existing) mechanisms on border-related issues and maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas before issues are resolved,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.
During the ‘constructive and fruitful’ talks, Yang and Menon also exchanged views on bilateral ties as well as international and regional issues of common concern in a candid and in-depth way.
The two officials also reviewed the status of bilateral relations in the wake of the recent landmark visit to India of Chinese Premier li Keqiang. They discussed regional and global issues of mutual interest, it said.
The two sides believe that the development of the China-India relationship is in the interests of the two nations, the region and the world at large, it said.
They also pledged to sustain high-level interactions, enhance mutual trust, boost practical cooperation, step up cultural and
people-to-people exchanges and further advance bilateral ties, it said. The talks reportedly focussed on the draft of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, (BDCA) on which both sides already exchanged views.
The BDCA, in which India would like to incorporate
provisions to avert incidents like the Depsang face-off, was
expected to take shape before the visit of Defence Minister, A.K. Antony to India scheduled for July 4 to 7.
China should accept McMahon line as border with India: Swamy
Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy has asked China to accept the McMahon line as the border with India just as it did in the case of Myanmar to resolve the vexed dispute.
China should accept McMahon line since it had accepted the same line drawn at the same time in 1912 with Myanmar, Swamy said while speaking on “China’s relations with its neighbours” at the 2013 World Peace Forum organised by China’s Tsinghua University in association with Chinese Foreign Ministry.
“Such an acceptance will vastly improve India-China relations,” Swamy argued in a lengthy paper presented at the meeting attended by strategic think-tanks from China and a number of other countries.