BBC Online :
India and China have signed 12 agreements in Delhi, one of which will see China investing $20bn (£12.2bn) in India’s infrastructure over five years.
At a news conference with Chinese President Xi Jinping, India’s PM Narendra Modi said “peace on the border” was important for progress.
Talks came as India accused China of fresh territorial incursions in Ladakh.
China is one of India’s top trading partners but they vie for regional influence and dispute their border. Modi and Xi made separate statements at the end of their talks in Delhi on Thursday. Both sides also focussed on increasing co-operation in trade, space exploration and civil nuclear energy.
Modi called for an early settlement on the disputed common border between the two countries and said the “true potential of our relations” would be realised when there was “peace in our relations and in the borders”.
There have been reports in the Indian media of Chinese troops trying to construct a temporary road into Indian territory across the Line of Actual Control (the de facto boundary) in the disputed Ladakh region over the past week.
Xi said he was committed to working with India to maintain “peace and tranquillity” on the border. “China-India border issue is a problem which has troubled both sides for long… As the area is yet to be demarcated, there may be some incidents,” he said. The face-off between Chinese and Indian troops along their disputed border is being widely reported in India, with some suggesting that it could derail talks between the two countries. That is highly unlikely.
The border dispute is an old one, dating back to 1914 when Britain, India’s former colonial power, signed an agreement with Tibet making the McMahon Line the de-facto border between the two countries. China has always rejected this.
Both sides also claim each other’s territory – India, the Aksai Chin region of Kashmir and China refuses to recognise Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh as part of India. There have been several incursions of Chinese troops across the border in these areas which have been highlighted by the Indian media. Diplomats from both sides, however, play down these transgressions. T
