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China, India sign agreement to ease border dispute
November 29, 1996
Web posted at: 3:30 p.m. EST (2030 GMT)NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- India and China signed an agreement on Friday aimed at reducing tensions along their Himalayan frontier, over which they fought a war in 1962.
The pact, signed on the second day of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's three-day visit to India, calls for partial demilitarization of the disputed border and reaffirms that "neither side shall use force against the other by any means or seek unilateral military support."
The agreement was signed by Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen and his Indian counterpart Inder Kumar Gujral as Jiang and Indian Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda looked on.
The issue of the 2,800-mile (4,500-km) frontier is viewed as central to problems between the two countries, home to one third of the world's population.
In addition to the border pact, India and China signed agreements in New Delhi to fight crime and drug trafficking, improve communications across the border and maintain the Indian consulate in Hong Kong after the Chinese takeover next year.
Experts say the significance of the agreements lies not so much in substance but in signals.
Jiang's visit and the agreements show an attempt by India and China to work out a new relationship of constructive cooperation to carry them further from the confrontation that led to the 1962 border war in which China defeated India.
That war sent India-China relations into the deep-freeze. The thaw began only when then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Beijing in 1988. Still these is considerable ice between India and China.
Despite years of negotiations following the war, the dispute over the Himalayan border persists. While the agreement calls for a reduction in troops and weapons along the border, both countries will maintain a military presence there.
"If peace and tranquillity are maintained in this area. I don't believe there is any need to maintain a large number of military personnel there," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang.
The border is not the only matter of contention between the two countries. China disapproves of India's hosting Tibetan refugees and their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.
India, for its part, is alarmed by China's transfer of nuclear and missile technology to its hostile neighbor, Pakistan. The issue is one Jiang and Gowda have discussed during talks according to Indian officials.
Despite lingering differences between India and China, pragmatism is now the guiding principle. Both nations have apparently decided to set aside differences and concentrate on areas of cooperation such as trade, which at $1 billion a year is only a fraction of what it might be if further barriers were removed.
Amit Mitra, an economist, said Jiang's visit will move the two countries toward a closer economic relationship as Chinese and Indian leaders become more familiar with each other's business practices.
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With suspicion, hostility and contempt having marred Sino- Indian relations for decades, both nations now hope that familiarity will breed cooperation.
New Delhi Bureau Chief Anita Pratap and Reuters contributed to this report.
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