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India, China to set up mechanism to curb LAC violations
Ashok Tuteja/TNS

New Delhi, September 24
India and China propose to institute a joint mechanism to prevent the possibility of any misunderstanding between them in the event of the violation of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) unwittingly by either side. Senior officials of the foreign ministries of the two countries met in New Delhi early this week to give a concrete shape to the proposal.

It is learnt that a formal announcement about the proposed mechanism would be made at the 14th round of talks on the boundary dispute between the Special Representatives (SRs) of the two countries, to be held in November in New Delhi.

National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon is the SR on the Indian side while State Councillor Dai Bingguo is the SR on the Chinese side. The two countries began the dialogue at the SR level in 2003 following the historic visit of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Beijing.

According to official sources, the proposal to establish a joint mechanism had been agreed upon in principle between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao when they met in the Chinese beach resort of Sanya in April on the margins of the BRICS Summit.

The two countries already have a bilateral arrangement to deal with any complaint of intrusion along their over 4000-km long border. However, both New Delhi and Beijing fear that the situation could flare up if the media, particularly in India, sensationalises reports of the ‘perceived’ Chinese intrusions into the Indian territory.

Hence, there was need to establish a mechanism for direct communication between the foreign ministries of the two countries to deal with any untoward incident along the border. It was all the more necessary to establish the mechanism since the LAC was not delineated from Arunachal Pradesh to Ladakh, leading to frequent violations of the LAC by the troops on both sides.

The sources said the proposed mechanism would also have representatives from the External Affairs, Defence and Home ministries, intelligence agencies and the military. It would be led by a senior official of the External Affairs Ministry.