Top level People’s Liberation Army delegation which arrived in India to discuss ways to boost CBMs between the world’s largest and second-largest standing armies and defuse troop confrontations along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control called on Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in South Block, New Delhi on Saturday.
Defence PRO statement said that the Chinese delegation headed by General Zhang Youxia, Head of General Armament Department of the PLA and the member of CMC called on Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjit Singh in South Block, New Delhi on Saturday.
The 15-member delegation led by General Zhang Youxia, who is also a member of the all-powerful Chinese Central Military Commission, has also call on defence minister Manohar Parrikar and Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag. Interestingly, there are as many as four Lt-Generals and a Major-General in the delegation visiting from February 27 to March 2. Interestingly, PM Narendra Modi is expecting to visit China in May.
It was in October 2013 that India and China had inked their new border defence cooperation agreement (BDCA) but it has not proved very effective in defusing and managing troop face-offs or in preventing either side from tailing each other’s patrols.
The BDCA holds both armies will “exercise maximum self-restraint” if a face-to-face situation develops, as also have the right to “seek a clarification from the other side” if “a doubtful situation arises” where there is “no common understanding” of the LAC. But frequent “transgressions” continue to take place all along the LAC from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.
India, apart from being outgunned by China in terms of military capabilities, has also lagged far behind in developing border infrastructure. As reported by TOI earlier, just 19 of the 73 “strategic” roads (adding up to 3,808-km) identified for construction along the LAC for better troop mobility almost a decade ago, have been fully completed till now. All the 73 all-weather roads, with more east-west lateral links as well as better access routes to strategic peaks and valleys, were to be completed by 2012.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday told Lok Sabha that 16 roads would be completed by this year, another 13 by 2016, nine by 2017 and four by 2018 and beyond, as per revised timelines. The delays in execution of road projects mainly occur due to delays in forest/wildlife and land acquisition clearances, hard rock stretches, limited working seasons and natural disasters, he said.
