By IANS
New Delhi : Perceived violations occur along the India-China border due to differing perceptions of its alignment and lead to situations that could have been avoided – but peace and tranquillity prevails along the frontier, parliament was told Wednesday.
India and China’s “perceptions of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) overlap” at many places on the border, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
“From time to time, on account of differences in the perception of the LAC, situations have arisen on the ground that could have been avoided if we had a common perception of the LAC.
“In order to address this issue, the matter has been taken up at appropriate levels in the government,” Antony added.
The government regularly takes up such “perceived violations” with the Chinese side through established mechanisms, including a Joint Working Group, meetings of border personnel, flag meetings and normal diplomatic channels, the minister said.
“Mechanisms to address instances of intrusions along the LAC and well established. Peace and tranquillity has been maintained in the border areas,” he added.
According to Antony, the government “keeps a constant watch on all developments having a bearing on India’s security and takes all necessary measures to safeguard it.
“Furthermore, various government agencies involved in the issue do not have differing perceptions on the issue,” the minister added.
India and China had fought a bitter border war in 1962 and their relations had remained frosty till the 1980s when they initiated a series of measures to improve their relations.
The two sides signed an agreement on maintaining peace and tranquillity along the LAC in 1993, an agreement on confidence building measures (CBMs) in the military field in 1996, a protocol on the modalities for implementing these in 2005 and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2006.
As a follow-up to the MoU, the annual defence dialogue between the two sides was held in Beijing Nov 12-13, during which it was agreed that the two armies would stage their first war games next month.
The dates for the exercise, to be conducted at Kunming in China’s Yunnan province, will be decided when military officers of the two armies meet in Kolkata next week.