Put behind unfortunate 1962 war, China to India

China wants India to put behind the 1962 war as an ‘unfortunate’ thing of the past. The two countries should strengthen their military ties and formalise a border management pact under which their troops will not fire at each other, believes China's defence ministry.

The Chinese assessment was conveyed to the Indian defence ministry’s team which visited Beijing on January 14 and 15 for the third round of the Annual Defence Dialogue between the two countries.

During the meeting with the Indian team led by Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, the Chinese side asked India to forget the 1962 war as an ‘unfortunate’ thing of the past.

The Chinese delegation said it looked forward to better relations between the two countries, highly-placed defence sources said on Friday.

India had suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1962 war.

The Chinese side was ‘unusually warm’ during the third round of talks and wanted a formal border management agreement along the more than 4,000-km-long Line of Actual Control.

The Chinese side, the sources said, is expected to send proposals in this regard.

Beijing also wants to formalise a mechanism under which there will be no night patrolling by troops from both sides and if they cross each others' path, they will not follow each other, sources said.

However, Beijing continued to be in denial mode when the Indian side raised the issue of the presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

India maintains that Chinese troops are found in significant numbers in PoK around the Chinese construction projects in that region.

The Chinese side did not raise any ‘negative’ issue, like they have done in the past, when they questioned the statements by services chiefs on China and the media coverage.