Parrikar on Monday begins talks with the Chinese military and civilian leadership aimed at reducing tensions along the boundary.
India and China are looking at instituting a new, sixth border personnel meeting point along the contested Line of Actual Control (LAC), as Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday begins talks with the Chinese military and civilian leadership aimed at reducing tensions along the boundary.
Both sides are discussing opening a sixth border personnel meeting point, likely in the middle sector of the border, following the opening of two new meetings points last year in the western and eastern sectors, which officials on both sides say has helped better address differences along the LAC.
This is expected to be discussed among a range of other confidence building measures to increase trust between the two militaries, when Parrikar meets with Chinese Defence Minister Chang Wanquan on Monday morning at the Ba Yi building in Beijing, where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership sits.
Parrikar will be welcomed there with an official ceremony before the talks. Later on Monday, he will meet one of China’s highest ranking generals, Fan Changlong, who is one of two vice chairmen on the Central Military Commission headed by President Xi Jinping.
He will also travel to Chengdu, the headquarters of the PLA’s newly set up western theatre command that covers the entire border with India. On Saturday, Parrikar met with members of the Indian community during his stopover in Shanghai, and was briefed on the city’s smart city projects at the urban planning exhibition center.
New border points?
The two new border points were opened last year following frequent disputes over incursion incidents, which officials said have been triggered by differing perceptions of the LAC in certain areas.
The additional meeting points were opened at Daulat Beg Oldi in Ladakh, which was the site of a three-week-long stand-off incident in April 2013 which strained relations, and at Kibithu-Damai in Arunachal Pradesh in the east. The three other points are in Chushul/Spanggur in the western sector, Nathu La in Sikkim and Bum La near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh in the east.
Officials said Parrikar’s visit was aimed at examining the entire breadth of defence ties, besides addressing the situation along the border.
Both sides are also discussing plans for defence exercises to be held later this year, with a desire to scale up the annual counter-terrorism drills. India and China recently held first ever joint drills along the LAC – a short humanitarian relief exercise in the Chushul area, which was seen as a step forward to reduce mistrust along the border.
US logistics deal
Parrikar is also likely to use his visit to assure the Chinese that India pursued an “independent” foreign policy, following the recent ‘in-principle’ deal with the United States for a logistics support
agreement. Chinese officials have themselves played down the agreement, and responded officially by saying “it is known to all that India has been upholding an independent foreign policy” and that “like other countries India makes its foreign policies based on its own interests”.
China’s terror veto
His visit comes amid new strains over China blocking India’s attempt to list Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar over the Pathankot terror attack as a sanctioned terrorist at the UN Security Council.
Officials said the matter would be raised when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meets her counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow at the Russia-India-China summit. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval will also be in Beijing next week, shortly after Parrikar’s visit, for the next round of border talks.
