India gives counter proposal for Border Def Coop Agreement to China

New Delhi: India has given a counter proposal to China for Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid disclosed today on his return from two-day visit to Bejing which took place in the backdrop of deep Chinese incursion in Ladakh. Khurshid also said, for the first time, China has shown “sensitivity” towards India’s demand for expanding mechanism to deal with issues pertaining to trans-border rivers. [caption id=“attachment_773291” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing. PTI[/caption] Noting that China has given a proposal for Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), the minister said India has also given a counter proposal and both countries were examining these proposals. “China has proposed sometime back a proposal for Border Defence Cooperation Agreement…We have also given our suggestions,” he said but did not give details of Indian proposal. He also clarified that the proposals were not meant to replace any existing ones. Under BDCA, China has proposed expansion of friendly contacts and more communication between the troops of the two sides on the ground which will help avoid any misunderstanding or flare-up along the LAC. On the recent incursion by Chinese troops in Daulat Beg Oldi sector, Khurshid who, on his first day of the visit in Beijing had said that he saw no reason to go into “details of hair splitting”, today asserted he “raised and flagged it and we said that we both need to do analysis of why it happened. “The analysis, then perhaps, can be converged and shared and then we all will have a better idea. And while all this is going on, we can improve our attempts and our ability to resolve the bigger issue, the larger issue which we finally have to resolve” he said adding “we did not do any post- mortem and we were not apportioning blame.” He also said Special Representatives of India and China will meet in a couple of months for 16th round to discuss in detail the issues related to the boundary. He said India also flagged the need to expand or set up a separate mechanism to deal with issues pertaining to trans-border rivers. For the first time, India has seen some “movement” with China assuring that it was committed to ensuring that India’s rights were not harmed, he said. PTI