The pact is largely intended to prevent a military conflict, improve communication between the two sides, encourage cooperation on border-related activities such as combating the smuggling of contraband goods, and promote better relations between troops, like joined celebrations of major holidays, reports the Indian Express.

 

Experts aren't too enthused about the pact, viewing it as a temporary fix. "So many of the current problems arise from the line of actual control and both sides have a different understanding which means even after the new agreement is implemented there will still be conflicts and contradictions," Huang Yinghong, assistant professor of Asian and Pacific studies at Sun Yat-sen University, told the Financial Times.

 

China and India went to war in 1962 over disputed territory of Aksai Chin. India claimed this was a part of Kashmir, while China claimed it was a part of Xinjiang.