India–China Boundary (International Relations)
India–China Boundary (International Relations)
Why In News: India and China held the 25th round of Special Representatives’ (SR) talks on the boundary question, with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as the designated Special Representatives.
Key Outcomes:
The Expert Group on boundary delimitation will advance discussions on an early harvest in appropriate sectors.A separate Working Group on border management will work on maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas.
The first task of both groups is to agree on their terms of reference.The Line of Actual ControlIndia places the length of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at about 3,488 km, while China describes it as roughly 2,000 km.
The LAC is not delimited on maps and not demarcated on the ground.The LAC is divided into three sectors: the Western Sector (Ladakh, about 1,597 km), the Middle Sector (Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, about 545 km), and the Eastern Sector (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, about 1,346 km).
The Middle Sector is the least disputed, with the Barahoti plains in Uttarakhand as the main friction area. The Sikkim boundary is the only stretch both sides broadly accept as delimited, based on the Anglo-Chinese Convention of 1890
.In the Western Sector, competing claims derive from the Johnson Line (favoured by India, placing Aksai Chin in Kashmir) and the Macartney-MacDonald Line (which China invokes).
China controls about 38,000 sq km of Aksai Chin, and Pakistan ceded about 5,180 sq km of the Shaksgam Valley to China under the 1963 agreement, which India does not recognise.
In the Eastern Sector, India relies on the McMahon Line, drawn at the Simla Convention of 1914. China rejects it and claims about 90,000 sq km of Arunachal Pradesh, referring to it as ‘Zangnan’ or South Tibet.
Key Facts for Prelims
India shares its boundary with China across five States and Union Territories: Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.India and China are both members of BRICS, the SCO, the AIIB and the New Development Bank, but India is not part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.