Naku-La controversy
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Subject: IR
Context:
Several soldiers injured during faceoff between India and China along Sikkim border last month
Concept:
- Line of Actual Control (LAC), is 4,057-km porous border running through glaciers, snow deserts, mountains and rivers separate India and China.
- The LAC traverses three areas — Western (Ladakh, Kashmir), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal).
- Transgressions along the LAC into India from the Chinese side are more frequent in the Western sector.
- China illegally occupies 38,000sqkm of land in Jammu & Kashmir. It also holds 5,180km of Indian territory in PoK under the Sino-Pak agreement of 1963.
- 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 January 2012, the two sides signed a Joint Boundary mechanism to remove misunderstanding on a real time basis in case of any transgression along the LAC.
- 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 level and diplomat level dialogue mechanism.
Naku La sector
- It is a pass at a height of more than 5,000 metres above Mean Sea Level (MSL) in the state of Sikkim
- It is located ahead of Muguthang or Cho Lhamu (source of River Teesta).
- The other passe located in the state of Sikkim is Jelep La Pass.
