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Sunday, August 04, 2013

A Line of Actual Self Control?

India and China are working on a deal to limit confrontations along their common (but ill-defined) border:

A high-level Indian delegation, with representatives from the foreign and defence ministries, will go to Beijing in September to "fine-tune" the BDCA after India finalised its "second counter-draft" to the "revised draft" submitted by China earlier.

Is China really interested in refraining from crossing that Line of Actual Control (LAC)? Or does "fine tuning" the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) consist of getting India to remain passive in the face of Chinese encroachment?

That would be counter-productive for China since, if made public, such an unbalanced agreement would enflame Indian public opinion. We'll see how nuanced the Chinese really are.

UPDATE: Clearly, fine tuning is necessary:

Amid a spate of incursions by China in Ladakh, its troops are also resorting to tactics like preventing Indian Army from patrolling posts in this sector along the border which was well within India's territory.

Tip to Defense Industry Daily.