NEW DELHI — Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar visits Beijing next month (April 18) where he will talk with his counterpart and top ranking Chinese military officials on how to effectively implement the bilateral Border Defense Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), said an Indian Defence Ministry source. in the Ministry of Defense (MoD).
India and China inked the BDCA in October 2013 during former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Beijing, establishing a formal mechanism to improve security along their 4,056-kilometer border, which is called the long Line of Actual Control. (LAC), which is being considered the border between the two countries.
India and China have also increased cooperation on a military-to-military basis. as well in the recent past.
China's top ranking military official, Gen. Fan Changlong, vice chairman of China's the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China, headed a 26-member delegation that held talks in November last year here with the Indian defense officials and Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar.
However, the meeting did had not achieve any significant results outcome and border level local skirmishes at the border continue to be reported as there is no well-established institutional framework to check these incidents.
The MoD source said there have been several cases of Chinese infiltration into Indian territory, but the source refused to give details.
The border, between the two countries is 4056 kilometres of area, mostly in mountainous terrain, called Line of Actual Control, (LAC) which is neither marked on the ground nor on mutually acceptable maps.
China claims 92,000 square kilometers of Indian territory and the two countries fought a brief battle in 1962 over the boundary dispute, which has never been not been resolved. despite scores of delegation talks between the two countries.
"The border issue has become very complicated and has not been resolved despite decades of talks," said Nitin Mehta , defense analyst. Adding that The two countries will have to increase continue to increased economic cooperation economically and in other areas as the boundary dispute is unlikely to be resolved quickly. in the near future.
Email: vraghuvanshi@defensenews.com
Vivek Raghuvanshi is the India correspondent for Defense News.
