India-China

• 13 Aug 2019

India and China have signed four agreements to strengthen cultural and people-to-people ties.

• The 4 agreements are on:
  
  • Cultural Exchanges: To promote cultural exchanges for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, organisation of cultural activities and management of archaeological heritage sites.
  • Healthcare: To enhance cooperation in the field of traditional medicine, where both India and China have a rich knowledge, accumulated over centuries.
  • Sports: To promote exchanges between national sports associations, sports persons and youth for strengthening cooperation on international sports events.
  • Cooperation in Museum Management: To promote collaboration between Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan and the National Museum, New Delhi in exhibitions, protection and restoration of collections and archaeological excavations.
    
    • The Hubei Provincial Museum is one of the best known museums in China, with a large amount of state-level historic and cultural relics.
    • The National Museum is one of the largest museums in India. Established in 1949, it holds a variety of articles ranging from pre-historic era to modern works of art.

China’s Initiatives at Kailash Mansarovar

• To improve the material comforts of the pilgrims to Kailash Mansarovar, the chinese government has built accommodation facilities, called reception centres, at various points of the pilgrimage.
  
  • The reception centres, each with about 150 beds, have rooms with charging points, a common kitchen and a common washroom, and provide food for the pilgrims.
  • The Chinese government has spent $5.21 million in building these centres.

Ladakh and Line of Actual Control

• The External Affairs Minister has assured China that India’s decision to exercise greater administrative control over Ladakh would have no implications for India’s external boundaries or the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China.
• LAC is a 4,057-km porous border running through glaciers, snow deserts, mountains and rivers that separate India and China.
• The LAC traverses three areas— Western (Ladakh, Kashmir), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).
• In 1993, India and China signed an accord to reduce tensions along their border and respect the LAC. Three years later in 1996, the two countries agreed to delimit the LAC and institute confidence building measures.
• In October 2013, the two sides signed the Boundary Defence Cooperation Agreement to prevent any flare up along the un-demarcated border. This encompasses both military and diplomat level dialogue mechanism.

Source: BS