NEW DELHI: The mechanisms under the newly signed border pact between India and China will help in intervening and quickly solving any possible face-offs between the troops of the two countries, Defence Minister A K Antony said today.
“If anything happens, there are mechanisms to immediately intervene and find solutions as quickly as possible. That is a new development. Both sides are making sincere efforts to maintain peace and stability on borders,” he said.
The Defence Minister was asked if the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement between India and China would help in avoiding the face-offs such as the one in Depsang valley in Ladakh in April.
The BDCA was signed by India and China to avoid flare-offs between the two sides in the future during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to China earlier this month.
Antony said another new thing in the BDCA was to increase contacts between the armed forces of the two sides.
“Another new development is that there will be more contacts between the two militaries. It will not only at the higher level but at the field level also. The idea is to develop more trust between the two militaries,” he said.
He said he was “not a prophet or an astrologer” to say whether there would be no face-off incidents between the two sides in future.
Asked about an article in China about the preparedness of Chinese armed forces to get back its lost land including Arunachal Pradesh, Antony said there will be no let up in the modernisation of the armed forces and government was providing all possible support for it. (AGENCIES)
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