China damaged boundary wall,' says Indian Defence Minister/ENG

DHARAMSHALA, December 22: Even as India and China are gearing up to resume boundary talks next month, Indian Defence Minister admitted Wednesday that Chinese soldiers damaged a 200 feet stone wall in Tawang region of eastern India earlier this year.

Speaking during the ongoing session of the Indian parliament, A K Antony said that a People's Liberation Army patrol had attempted to cross the wall constructed 250 metres on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Yangtse area of Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh on July 13.

"It was prevented by our troops. The stone-wall was partially damaged by PLA. As per the established mechanism with China, a strong protest was lodged with the Chinese side on the PLA patrol's action in a flag meeting,'' he said.

The minister tried to downplay the situation by suggesting that the absence of a commonly delineated LAC could be blamed for conflicting perceptions of the border thus leading to frequent incursions.

The 15th round of Special Representative level border talks scheduled for November were differed following China’s demand to scrap a Buddhist conference in New Delhi where the Dalai Lama was to deliver a valedictory speech.

Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and China’s state councillor Dai Bingguo are expected to "sign a landmark border mechanism to curb incidents of intrusion" during the upcoming talks.

However, experts are not very optimistic of the outcomes of the long drawn out talks in easing the traditional mistrust and boundary disputes between the two Asian nuclear powers.

"Traditional mistrust between the two sides since the bloody 1962 war and the incursions in each others boundary could cloud the talks," said the New Delhi-based strategic analyst Brahma Chellaney.

Dibyesh Anand, an Associate Professor at London's Westminster University also had little hopes with the talks.

"The problem with India and China fighting over the boundary disputes is that they are fighting over a border land that doesn't belong to either side," said Anand while addressing a select Tibetan audience in Dharamshala this week.