India-China border deal would be 'double guarantee': Analysts

hinese experts say the defence deal will be very important in controlling border crises

The India-China Border Defence Cooperation Agreement, expected to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's three-day visit here, would be a "double guarantee" to deal with frequent face offs by the two armies along the Line of Actual Control, Chinese experts said.

The defence deal will be "very important in controlling border crises," said Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

"The two nations have established some mechanisms for managing border issues. Now if they can have this legally binding agreement there will be a double guarantee," he said.

"Singh has forged the political basis for the two Asian giants to explore deeper cooperation," he added.

Significantly, a report in an official daily, Global Times, claimed India was reluctant to take up the BDCA proposed by China for talks until the two armies held a three-week standoff at Depsang valley in April and May.

There was no official explanation why Chinese troops intruded ahead of Premier Li Keqiang's visit to India in May this year and this was perhaps the first time that an official daily hinted at the reason why Chinese troops chose to intrude across the LAC at Daulat Beig Oldi in Ladakh.

Fu Xiaoqiang, a research fellow from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said sealing the BDCA is far from solving the border disputes.

"The new border pact is actually only a supplement to previous border agreements by the two governments in efforts to prevent border troops from conflicts or standoffs."

Ye Hailin, an expert on Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the proposed plans to build Chinese industrial parks in India will be a "great way to help balance trade between the two and reshape the economic structure of India."

The balance of bilateral trade is heavily tilted in favour of China over USD 30 billion deficit in over USD 66.5 billion trade last year. The two countries aim to boost bilateral trade to USD 100 billion in 2015.

Qu Xing, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that Li mentioned building an economic passage linking East Asia and South Asia in his May visit to India. "This time it is expected that the two sides can discuss details of the plan," Qi said.

"The bilateral economic and trade ties have been the most positive among the two countries' relations," Zhao Gancheng, head of the Center for South Asian Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, told the Global Times, but noted that the trade deficit indeed disturbs the two countries' trade development.

"Increasing China's direct investment in India would be a good solution to cope with the deficit," said Zhao.