Seeking to defuse recurring border tension, India and China today inked a comprehensive pact which commits the two countries not to use military capability to attack each other. The Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) was signed after extensive talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang in Beijing, the two countries also agreed not to tail each other's patrol along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) which has witnessed numerous incursions by Chinese troops at Depsang Valley in Ladakh.
The BDCA facilitates the establishment of a hotline between the military headquarters of the two countries and meeting sites for border personnel in all sectors of the 4000-km LAC.
The talks between the two Prime Ministers lasted over three hours. Dr. Singh and Li met for the second time this year for “fruitful and productive”discussions.
In all, nine agreements, including the BDCA and one on strengthening cooperation on trans-border rivers, were signed after the talks.During the talks, India objected to stapled visas issued by China to residents of some Indian states .Dr Singh told the media after the talks that he had conveyed to Premier Li New Delhi's commitment to visa simplification to facilitate travel of Chinese nationals to India and expressed hope that China will also facilitate such exchanges.
A joint statement issued this evening said, the two countries agreed on vision for future development of their strategic and cooperative partnership. Both nations agreed to further strengthen coordination and cooperation in multilateral forums to jointly tackle global issues such as climate change, international terrorism, food and energy security, and to establish a fair and equitable international political and economic system. The joint statement issued after talks and meetings Dr Manmohan Singh had with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chairman of the National People’s Congress Zhang Dejiang.
The statement said to promote a balanced growth of bilateral trade the Joint Economic Group will continue to expand the bilateral economic cooperation and Working Groups will expeditiously discharge their mandates. The two sides also agreed to look into the prospects of a bilateral Regional Trade Arrangement, RTA and also review the state of the negotiation on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, RCEP. Underlining defence exchanges and military exercises as important in building greater trust and, two countries decided for holding of a counter-terrorism exercise next month.
Dr. Manmohan Singh invited his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang to visit India.
India and China today agreed to study the possibility of setting up an economic corridor spanning the two nations and covering Bangladesh and Myanmar. A joint statement recognised that India and China are poised to enter a new stage of economic engagement based on pragmatic cooperation and mutually advantageous policies and practices.
