Border management mechanism to be set up
From Our Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: In a major confidence building measure, India and China on Tuesday signed an agreement for setting up a mechanism to avert any untoward incident on border with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh saying good cooperation between the two countries would bring “great changes” in the world.
The agreement was signed after two-days of talks between Special Representatives (SR) — National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo — during which they noted the importance of regular high-level exchanges and strengthening cooperation across different areas.
The Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs, to be headed by a joint secretary level officer, will undertake mutually agreed tasks but will not discuss resolution of the boundary question or affect the SR process.
“The mechanism will ensure that anything happening on the border is immediately referred to the concerned higher level authorities so that we maintain the relative peace and tranquility along the border,”
Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here. Since the Sino-India border is not delineated, incidents of transgressions have been irritants in the bilateral ties.
Dai called on Singh who said that good cooperation between the two countries will bring about great changes to the world. Singh said that India was ready to work with China to push forward bilateral cooperation in all the fields.
Singh said the SR talks have achieved “positive progress” said India sought a solution to the boundary question on the basis of fairness, reasonableness and mutual acceptance. “Making a positive appraisal of the current state of bilateral relations, the SRs noted the importance of regular high-level exchanges and strengthened cooperation across different areas between the two countries,” a External Affairs Ministry statement said here
Both countries agreed to respect and abide by the Line of Actual Control pending a resolution of the boundary question between the two countries, Mathai said.
Hence forward, any untoward incident at the borders would be immediately reported at the highest level to be tackled at the earliest, he said.
Aiming for timely communication of information on the border situation, for appropriately handling border incidents, for earnestly undertaking other cooperation activities in the India-China border areas, have agreed as follows:
The Working Mechanism will be headed by a Joint Secretary level official from the Ministry of External Affairs of India and a Director General level official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.
It will be composed of diplomatic and military officials of the two sides, Mathai said.
A number of areas along the border between the two countries are in dispute and they fought a brief war in 1962. Numerous rounds of border talks have been held to try to resolve the issues. China is upset over India for sheltering Dalai Lama and his supporters in its territory whom the neighbour feels as anti-nationals. (With inputs from PTI)