India, China wise to tide over incursion issue, say experts

BEIJING: Both the Chinese government and Sino- Indian experts here have played down the border dispute between the two countries that soured the diplomatic relations between New Delhi and Beijing in the past few days.

While continuing to deny any incursion by its border troops into Indian territory in the Ladakh region, the Chinese foreign ministry said both countries have the wisdom and capacity to tide over the issue.

Hua Chunying, ministry spokesperson, said the importance of summoning the Chinese Ambassador to New Delhi by the Indian foreign ministry should not be blown out of proportion.

Experts on India- Sino relations agreed with the government that bilateral relations between the two countries should not be held hostage to such incidents.

However, no one seems to be been addressing India’s serious assertion that a platoon of Chinese soldiers have come deep into Indian territory to set up a camp.

Lan Jianxue, former Chinese diplomat described the continuing talks between the two countries like “chewing a bone.”

“Actually in the past several years, from time to time, there were reports about the so-called ‘line-crossing patrol’. This is all because the long China-India border has never been officially demarcated and both sides have different perceptions of the LAC in the border area. From Chinese perspective, we believe Chinese border forces have acted in strict compliance with relevant agreements between the two countries, observed the LAC and carried out normal patrol on the Chinese side without ever crossing the line,” Lan, who is now with the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), told Hindustan Times over email.

He added the Indian side has its own understanding and interpretation. And that’s why both sides keep up friendly consultations to narrow the gap of perception and to eventually arrive at a fair reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement.”

Neither China nor India wants to see the border issues affect overall bilateral ties, and mechanisms and efforts in place are still working, Sun Shihai, an expert on Indian studies told China Daily.