(Reuters) - India has agreed to
a Chinese demand to demolish
bunkers near their de facto
border in the Himalayas, Indian
military officials said, as part of
a deal to end a standoff that threatened to scupper slowly
improving relations. Indian and Chinese soldiers
faced off 100 metres (330 feet)
apart on a plateau near the
Karakoram mountain range,
where they fought a war 50
years ago, for three weeks until they reached a deal on Sunday
for both sides to withdrew. The tension had threatened to
overshadow a visit by Indian
foreign minister Salman
Khurshid to Beijing on May 9.
China's Premier Li Keqiang is
expected to visit India later this month. Details of the deal have not
been made public but a senior
official from the Indian army's
northern command said India
had agreed to abandon and
destroy bunkers in the Chumar sector, further south along the
disputed border. "The bunkers in Chumar were
dismantled after we acceded
to Chinese demand in the last
flag meeting. These bunkers
were live-in bunkers," the army
officer told Reuters on Tuesday. India said up to 50 Chinese
soldiers intruded into its
territory on the western rim of
the Himalayas on April 15.
Some Indian officials and
experts believed the incursion signalled Chinese concern
about increased Indian activity
in the area. India said the Chinese soldiers
were 19 km (12 miles) beyond
the point it understands to be
the border in the Ladakh
region of Kashmir, a vaguely
defined line called the Line of Actual Control, which neither
side agrees on. China denied it had crossed
into Indian territory. China won the border war they
fought in 1962, which soured
relations for decades, but ties
between the Asian giants have
been improving in recent
years. China is India's top trade partner. India has been beefing up its
military presence for several
years on the remote Ladakh
plateau, building roads and
runways to catch up with
Chinese development across the border in a disputed area
known as Aksai Chin. The decision to agree to the
Chinese demand and demolish
the bunkers followed heavy
criticism of the Indian
government over its handling
of the incident by the opposition. The Indian officer said earlier
that Chinese officers
demanded that India stop
construction of bunkers,
tunnels and huts along the Line
of Actual Control, as the vaguely defined border in
place since the 1962 war is
known. They also objected to nomads
crossing from India to grazing
meadows on the Chinese side,
the Indian army officer said.
An official in India's Defence
Ministry said on Monday the
deal to end the standoff as a
"quid pro quo" and said China
had also demanded India take
down listening and observation posts in the
Chumar area, which is close to
a Chinese road through Tibet. It was not clear if India was
dismantling those posts.
India agrees to some Chinese demands to end Himalaya standoff | Reuters
