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By PP Singh
BBC correspondent in Nagdoh, India-China border
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![Indian and Chinese troops at Nagdoh]()
Neither China nor India are talking hostilities
anymore |
For the
first time Indian soldiers have joined Chinese troops on their shared
border to mark China's national day.
Fifty Indian troops, some with their families, travelled to a remote
outpost on China's disputed Himalayan border with India's Arunachal
Pradesh state.
Indian brigadier Vikram Raghavan called Friday's celebration's
historic. Chinese troops had marked India's national day on 15 August.
India and China fought a brief border war in 1962.
'Winds of change'
About 50 Chinese military officials and soldiers, again some with
families, had travelled to the Bumla Pass, close to the Chinese outpost,
for Indian Independence Day on 15 August.
"This was a kind of a return visit," said Brigadier Raghavan, "a
reciprocal gesture and one that's part of our confidence-building process
along the Line of Actual Control.
"I can say the winds of change are blowing across the Himalayas and we
want to be friends."
This correspondent was an artillery officer in the Indian army 30 years
ago, gun sights trained on Nagdoh, and was now returning to cover the
celebrations north of Tawang as one of 15 attending Indian journalists.
Neither Chinese nor Indian troops here are talking of hostilities any
more.
"Our relations are improving and there is no question of a war," said
Senior Colonel Chen Yen Hui as he supervised the celebrations at Nagdoh.
"China and India will be friends forever."
Brigadier Raghavan said: "Since we started these confidence-building
exercises, these reciprocal visits, tensions have eased on what once was a
very sensitive frontier.
"Violation of each other's territory, incursions by patrols have come
down sharply. We have little to complain about each other these days."
He said it was "particularly significant" that the Chinese had allowed
the Indian media to visit their remote outpost.
40-year dispute
The brigadier's 5th Indian Mountain Division defends Bumla, the
monastic town of Tawang and the areas around it.
Bumla fell to the Chinese on the third day of the 1962 war and Tawang
within another week.
The Chinese army reached the plains of Assam with Indian formations
retreating in disarray to the outskirts of Tezpur.
Then suddenly the Chinese retreated, returning much of the land to
Indian hands.
In 1986, the armies nearly went to war again.
Relations improved after former Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee's six-day trip to China in June last year.
The countries decided to sort out their 40-year border dispute by
appointing senior officials to tackle the matter.
This year, China finally accepted the Himalayan state of Sikkim as part
of India.
It is yet to accept Arunachal Pradesh as part of India but analysts say
the joint celebrations are a significant
move.
Our relations are improving and there is no
question of a war. China and India will be friends forever 
