PTI, WUHAN: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have decided to issue “strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communications to build trust and understanding, India’s top diplomat said today, a move aimed at avoiding a Dokalam-like situation in the future.
Modi said his talks with Xi focussed on diverse areas of India-China cooperation. “We discussed ways to give impetus to our economic ties as well as people-to-people relations. Other areas we spoke about include agriculture, technology, energy and tourism,” he said.
At the end of the two-day informal summit between Modi and Xi in the central Chinese city, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said they underscored the importance of maintaining peace and tranquility in all areas of the India-China border region in the larger interest of the overall development of bilateral relations.
“They issued strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs,” he said.
He said the two leaders directed their militaries to earnestly implement various confidence building measures agreed upon between the two sides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthen existing institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms to prevent incidents in border regions.
They endorsed the work of the special representatives to find a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement on the boundary issue.
The two sides have held 20 rounds of talks to resolve the boundary dispute and worked out different mechanisms to keep peace along the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control.
His remarks assumes significance as the ‘heart-to-heart’ informal summit between Modi and Xi is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff last year.
