'Daulat Beg Oldie meeting point opening shows warming of Sino-India ties'

BEIJING: The recent opening of the new border meeting point of Indian and Chinese troops at Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh indicates "great efforts" by the two countries to safeguard stability at the border and warming of bilateral ties, a state-run daily here said today.

"It is the second border meeting point set up over the past year, which indicates China and India have made great efforts to safeguard border stability, and that their bilateral ties are getting warmer in many aspects," a report in the state-run Global Times quoted analysts as saying.

Delegations of Sino-India border guards met on August 1 at India's highest airport in Daulat Beg Oldie which is the fifth border point to be opened between the two countries, the report said.

"The two sides met for the first time at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) in northern Ladakh. The place had seen a three-week-long tense stand-off between the armies of either side in April of 2013," the report said about the face off the two sides had days ahead of the visit of Premier Li Keqiang, who made the first trip abroad to India after taking over as Prime Minister.

"Located in the cold desert region, DBO is about nine km far away from the line of actual control in Sino-India border areas," the report said.

"The meeting was to mark Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Day. The fourth border meeting point is located at Kibithoo, the extreme eastern area of South Tibet," it said.

Kibithoo is in Arunachal Pradesh, which China refers to as South Tibet.