Infrastructure growth along the India-China border has led to "dramatic increase" in "encounters" between the Army patrols of the two nations, but frequent engagement of the political leadership has imparted "calm and balance" to the relationship, former foreign secretary Shyam Saran said today.
Saran, whose comments came against the backdrop of the recent Dokalam standoff between the two armies, also pitched for "updating" the 1993 agreement on maintenance of peace and tranquility along the Line of Actual Control.
"Over the last 10 years, very significant infrastructure development has taken place on the Chinese side of the border. Very high-level surveillance facilities have been deployed by them. It is not that we (India) have been standing still, but the gap is there.
"The result of development on both sides has been that in many remote areas, patrols, which were going once in a month or once in six weeks, are going every week. The Chinese side, who would come as foot patrols, are now coming in jeeps, as road is there," he said.
At an interaction on his new book -- "How India Sees The World: Kautilya To The 21st Century" -- Saran, however, said, it was not as if the two sides were trying to provoke each other, but both armies were coming closer much more frequently than before.
"The number of encounters that take place between Indian and Chinese patrols has dramatically increased over the last few years. So, it should come as no surprise that there are more incidents at the border," he said.
He, however, said the "very regular, frequent engagement at the leadership level" ensured confrontation did not escalate.
Saran said both India and China showed willingness to engage, not only in terms of bilateral annual summits but also lost no opportunity to confabulate at regional gatherings, G20 summits or at the UN General Assembly.
Many of the meetings have also taken place in the backdrop of very serious differences, the former diplomat said.
"Reason why I think Xiamen (BRICS) meeting (between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping), despite the very hostile atmosphere, was important, again, in my reckoning, fits that certain pattern, which I think is a positive pattern (of willingness to engage)," he said.
"The lesson is, such meetings may not result in problems being solved, but provide a certain degree of calm or shall I say balance to the relationship," he added.
Saran said the 1993 agreement on maintaining peace on the border needed to be updated.
"The framework, which we have since 1993 on peace and tranquility agreement, was against a certain backdrop that prevailed at that time. But you need something more, as the potential incidents have grown more.
"So, going forward doesn't mean there will be no such incidents. There would probably be more such incidents in the future, not necessarily war-like situations, but encounter between the two sides at various points of the border is likely to happen," he said.
The book, described as "part memoir and part thesis" on India's international relations since Independence, also revisits the strategic wisdom encapsulated in ancient texts such as Kautilya's Arthashastra and Kamandaki's Nitisara.
In response to a question, Saran said that if a new security architecture of the region emerges, China should be part of it, but it has to be a "multilateral reassurance and not their (China's) unilateral assertion".
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