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Antony: Chinese incursions possible
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 16
Admitting that local-level tensions along the India-China boundary were a reality, Defence Minister AK Antony today said that future transgressions by troops could not be ruled out totally.

He said that the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), signed in October, was helping in sorting out irksome issues much faster.

Antony was speaking after paying homage at the memorial at India Gate to mark Vijay Divas. Vijay Divas is celebrated to mark India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war.

He said issues like transgressions were now getting resolved immediately in the wake of the signing of the BDCA, inked when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Beijing.

Antony said: "Our decision is to maintain peace and tranquillity. Whenever any incident takes place... that possibility cannot be ruled out as the boundary is very long, both sides should come together and resolved it amicably."

He was asked to comment on the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and in the backdrop of Chinese troops recently apprehending five Indian shepherds on the charge that they were in Chinese territory and returned them only after a flag meeting between the two sides.

India and China have 167-year-old boundary dispute. Both sides dispute the alignment of the 4,057-km long Line of Actual Control -- the name of the de facto border between the two countries.

The incident related to the five shepherds had occurred in the Chumar sector located on the south-eastern edge of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of December.

With temperatures in those areas plunging to minus 30 degrees Celsius, it is reported that the horses belonging to the shepherds had strayed across the border and were detained by the Chinese. There is no demarcated alignment of the LAC on the ground.

On the incident, Antony said the Indians who were apprehended by PLA troops were civilians and not Army personnel and the matter was resolved through talks.

“Of late, we have been able to resolve issues without much delays. That is an improvement,” the Defence Minister said.

To a question on the border pact with the Chinese, he said, "After the agreement -- by and large -- whenever any issue arises, we are able to resolve it as quickly as possible. It does not mean that there would not be any issue as long as the India-China border issue is not settled. There can always be a possibility."

India and China had signed the agreement with an aim of preventing any possible flare-up between the two sides along the LAC, where both the countries have been upgrading their infrastructure.

Commenting on the ongoing boundary resolution talks between the Special Representatives of the two countries, the Defence Minister said that people should "not expect miracles".

“What we are trying is that till a satisfactory solution to the boundary issue is found, whenever incidents take place on the border, through discussions and the official mechanism, resolve those issues,” he said.