“China-India reach border defence pact,” Al Jazeera, 23 October

China and India have signed a deal aimed at soothing tension on their contested border, as the two countries try to break a decades-old stalemate on overlapping claims to remote stretches of the Himalayas. …

Under the new deal, the two sides will give notice of patrols along the ill-defined border to ensure that patrols do not “tail” each other to reduce the chance of confrontation and will exercise “maximum self-restraint” should the two sides come face to face in areas where the line of control is unclear.

The two armies, strung out along the 4,000km border, have also agreed to look at setting up a hotline between top-ranking officers in addition to existing brigade-level contacts.

The border defence cooperation pact is a small step forward in a complicated relationship marked by booming economic ties and growing distrust.

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