Home Minister Rajnath Singh is on an official tour of China. He has met with Chinese leaders including Premier Li Keqiang and Interior Minister Guo Shengkun in the Chinese capital. Essentially, this is a security related meeting but other matters like cross-border terrorism, security and law enforcement, trans-border crimes, cyber crimes and drug trafficking have also come up in the course of deliberations. It is good that entire gamut of bilateral relations has been reviewed and way forward searched to strengthen the ties.
The meeting is significant in the sense that both sides have realized that there is the need to form a Ministerial-level mechanism headed by Home Ministers that would evolve greater cooperation and coordination on a host of issues of common interest. A comprehensive memorandum of understanding on security-related matters will follow the mechanism of Ministerial level talks.
Although our relations with China have remained strained for a long time, yet there is now better understanding on both sides that the two Asian giants have to reduce the areas of disagreement and widen the scope for cooperation. Modi Government has adopted positive attitude towards the subject of improving Sino-Indian relations leaving the past behind and planning for future cooperation. Our trade relations with China have increased. There is better appreciation of border issues and border crisis and both countries are responding to this phenomenon with greater sense of responsibility.
However, with all said and done, we cannot and should not remain complacent with what is available on the ground about border situation. India should certainly and quickly considerably improve defence capability on the border, upgrade connectivity and strengthen border posts to match the preparations of the Chinese. There should be no scope for complacency whatsoever.
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