The two countries, which fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962, have increased their military presence on each side of the border in recent years as their fast-growing economies permit more spending on defense of remote regions.
Under an agreement signed on Tuesday, high-level diplomats and military officials will aim at “timely communication” about border incidents and meet once or twice a year. “Its main task is to deal with affairs concerning maintaining the peace and tranquility of the border area,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a briefing on Wednesday.
However, the two countries are still a long way from agreeing on their territory — China says most of India’s Arunachal Pradesh state is part of Tibet. For its part, India claims China’s isolated Aksai Chin plateau near Kashmir as its own.
“Both sides reiterated that before the border issue is resolved, they will together strive to preserve the peace and tranquility of the border,” Liu said.
Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary for India, said the pact was a sign the two sides wanted to better manage ties as they grow and compete for resources and allies in Asia and beyond.
“The two countries are emerging powers, whose respective strategic profiles are intersecting at multiple points,” Saran wrote in a column in the Business Standard newspaper.
China’s close relationship with India’s main rival Pakistan, — as well as other neighbors such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar Bangladesh and Nepal — has given an urgency to New Delhi’s strategy of forging ties with Washington, Japan and Australia, along with Southeast Asian nations.
