Settling border issue key for India-China relations, says NSA

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 22

Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser (NSA) and Special Representative for border talks with China, today made it clear that ‘settlement’ of the border issue is ‘critical’ for India-China relations.

Doval and Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi had last met on March 23 for the 18th round of talks on the border dispute.

Speaking at the annual K F Rustamji lecture, Doval dwelt on China’s emergence as world’s economic power and its ‘special relations’ with Pakistan, saying “both are nuclear powers and do not have the democracy as we have”.

Though Pakistan has an elected government, Doval was probably hinting at how the Army has controlled the levers of power in Islamabad.

Rustomji was the first DG of the BSF when it was formed in 1965. Doval, a former Intelligence Bureau chief, said, “We might have to see China border in a different way once the boundary issue is settled.”

The border between India and China is not demarcated on ground. “For bilateral relations with China, border is a critical and vital issue,” he said speaking on the topic “Challenges of Securing India’s Borders; Strategising the Response”.

All advancement made in relationship with China gets centred around border settlement, said the NSA adding that the bilateral relations with China were looking up and there was a need to remain at a “very very high alert”. He cited the example of Eastern India: “We are concerned about the eastern sector where the claims have been made on Tawang (in Arunachal Pradesh) which is totally in contravention of the accepted principles”.

With Burma, China has agreed to the 1914 drawn ‘McMahon’ line and accepted it as border. However, China disputes the same line with India.

Sir Henry McMahon was foreign secretary of the British Indian government. In Tawang there is a settled population and other areas which have been participating in the national mainstream.

Doval termed the issues with China as ticklish which needed to be settled through talks. The comments by Doval came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to China asked Beijing to “reconsider its approach on some issues that hold us back”, an apparent reference to the long-pending boundary issue.

Doval also suggested to the BSF to look at borders in a new way and develop long-term studies on patterns on infrastructure, road and people’s behaviour across the border. “Come out of the narrow border guarding duties and prepare data that will help Indian policy formulation”, he said. The BSF is deployed on the borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh.