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Friday, Mar 20, 2009
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Sino-Indian border tranquil: Menon

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: The Sino-Indian border is tranquil and both sides are maintaining the status quo, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said here on Thursday. Pointing out that both sides had their own perceptions about the boundary, Mr. Menon said each side treated the other’s crossing over as an incursion. But the important thing was whether there had been a change in the pattern of incursions and whether it was taking place in new places. The answer to both was in the negative, he said, while taking questions at the release of the book “India-China relations – The border issue and beyond” co-authored by Mohan Guruswamy and Zorawar Daulet Singh.

“Both sides maintain the status quo. We don’t see changes in the pattern by either side,” Mr. Menon added.

While there was a border issue there was no border dispute with China unlike with Pakistan. The last casualty that took place was in October 1975 and even that was an accident.

The Foreign Secretary did not subscribe to the idea of publicly discussing the issue by pointing out that as was the case in the 50s and 60s, there would be less chance of coming to a reasonable solution.

Although China had emerged as India’s largest trading partner, overland trade had been slow to take off despite New Delhi having pushed hard for reopening the routes since the late 80s. This was due to socio-economic changes over nearly four decades when the traditional trade routes had been closed following the 1962 hostilities.

Asked why India did not open up its archives just as China had done, albeit selectively, Mr. Menon said the Ministry of External Affairs was willing to open up and had been making available part of the diplomatic correspondence with China to “bonafide scholars.”

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