NEW DELHI : The Border Defence Co-operation Agreement (BDCA) signed between India and China during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s just-ended visit to the country has evoked mixed response from China watchers in the country with some giving voice to their misgivings and some hailing it as a positive development.
There is a feeling among scholars and security experts that the earlier agreements of 1993 and 1996 and existing CBMs to maintain peace and tranquility on the border were equally good and there was no need of any other agreement provided they were implemented in letter and spirit.
However, some see the October 23 agreement as a step forward in the process of the talks under the Framework Agreement for resolution of the boundary dispute signed in April 2005.
An expert in India-China relations R N Das described the signing of the agreement as a ‘very positive’ development that was one further step towards the final resolution of the boundary dispute between the two countries.
It adds to the existing Confidence Building Measure(CBM), the joint working mechanism on border affairs that came into force in January last year, he said.
However, Ms Rajeshwari Pillai Rajagopalan, senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation here says the BDCA might be good for improving the ‘atmospherics’ but it does not guarantee future peace given the Chinese behaviour in the past.
“The main problem arises out of the difference in perception about the Line of Actual Control. For example the clause in the agreement that there will be no tailing of each other’s patrols would be rendered meaningless if it is not clear who was moving into whose territory in the absence of an agreed lAC,” she said.
Ms Pillai said though there were some good points in the agreement like more interaction and meeting points for military authorities of both sides, but she was sceptic about how effectively these would be implemented. (AGENCIES)
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