Chinese troops violated border pact in June: Arun Jaitley

New Delhi, Aug 1: Chinese troops violated a border pact signed between the two countries in October last year by tailing Indian troops in Eastern Ladakh in June, prompting India to lodge a protest on the issue, the government told Lok Sabha today.

"Since signing of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA), Chinese troops, have on one occasion, violated the provision by tailing our patrol in Eastern Ladakh on June 2," Defence Minister Arun Jaitley said in reply to a written query. "A protest was lodged against this violation in the flag meeting held on July 15," he said.

India and China signed the BDCA to maintain peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in October last year. As part of the pact, the "two sides agreed that they shall not follow or tail patrols of the other sides in areas where there is no common understanding of the LAC (Line of Actual Control) in the Indo-China border areas".

After signing the BDCA, the UPA government had warned that the pact was not a guarantee that incursions or transgressions would stop but would help in addressing issues along the border. Replying to another query, the Minister said Navy's INS Shivalik was deployed for participation in International Fleet Review (IFR) and multilateral maritime exercise at Qingdao in China from April 20-25.

"The IFR was cancelled in view of search and rescue of the missing Malaysian airliner MH-370, the multilateral exercise was held in which ships from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei participated," Jaitley said.

PTI