(Image source from: India-China to end the border conflict})

Following the recent cases of Chinese aggression reported in Line of Actual Control (LAC) Leh, Indian government has decided to send a high-profile Indian delegation comprising of representatives from foreign and defense ministries to Beijing in September to calibrate the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement. The two countries will ink border pact.

India will put forward its "second counter-draft" in reponse to the "revised draft" submitted by China earlier. "The final BDCA can now be settled across the table," said a source.

The new Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) that will lay out several confidence-building measures to restrain conflict between the Indian and Chinese troops cited along the unresolved Line of Actual Control (LAC).

The BDCA goes "further" than earlier pacts like the 2005 joint protocol on the "modalities for implementation of military CBMs along the LAC" in charting out "more de-escalatory mechanisms" and military-to-military interactions to ensure local issues are settled locally between "local commanders on the ground".

Both India and China, have agreed to deploy additional BPM (border personnel meeting) set-ups the sectors of western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal) besides the existing ones at Chushul, Nathu La and Bum La.

While both sides have agreed to keep Kibuthu as a part of Arunachal Pradesh, “the BPM points in the western and middle sectors are yet to be pinpointed. “

"The Mana Pass-Lipulekh area in the middle sector has, however, not worked out so far. The aim is that the BPM mechanism should effectively kick in whenever there is a situation on the border," a source said.

AW: Suchorita Dutta