Borders peaceful, talks positive: Menon
National Security Advisor says both New Delhi and Beijing are moving to next level of mutual cooperation
BEIJING: Despite the recent case of Chinese incursion into the Indian territory in April, the disputed India-China border has largely been peaceful and the two neighbours are discussing mechanisms to prevent recurrence of such incidents, National Security Advisor, Shivshankar Menon said on Friday.
Menon who was here to hold the 16th round of Special Representatives ( SRs) talks with his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, held discussions with the top Chinese leadership including Premier Li Keqiang on a wide range of issues, including the border dispute, bilateral relations and a border defence cooperation agreement. He also met foreign minister, Wang Yi.
Menon and Yang will continue their conversations on the boundary question on Saturday.
He said Friday’s talks were “productive, constructive and very forward-looking.”
Menon said the incident in Depsang figured in the talks but the Chinese did not offer any explanation for it.
The Indian government has so far failed to provide any public and plausible explanation about the incident even though it happened weeks before Premier Li Keqiang’s first overseas visit to India.
“Basically border regions have been peaceful. But there are areas where we have overlapping ideas of where the Line of Actual Control (LAC) should be. We also discussed peace and tranquility (in the border region),” Menon told Indian journalists.
Indicating that LAC has been peaceful for decades, Menon said that the last recorded death of an Indian soldier occurred by accident in 1975. “Mechanisms have worked for peace and tranquility. If you look at it since the 1993 border peace and tranquility agreement 1996 CBMs ( confidence building measures) 2006 etc the Standard Operating procedures, etc the basically border regions have been peaceful. Both sides have respected that there is a status quo,” Menon said.