China 'aggressively' shoring up its military set up along border: A.K Antony

NEW DELHI: China is "aggressively" shoring up its military capabilities along the borders with India, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Tuesday.

"I agree with you on that China is aggressively building its capabilities in its areas. In the past, India was negligent in strengthening its capabilities in the eastern sector,"he told reporters when asked about China strengthening its military set-up along the Line of Actual Control.

Instead of "grumbling" over the issue, India has started modernising it own capabilities by taking steps such as raising new Army divisions and Advanced Landing Grounds ( ALGs) for aircraft operations, he said on the sidelines of the Coast Guard Commanders' Conference here.

Asked about recent incursions taking place from the Chinese side, the minister said this was due to differences in perception of boundary which was not properly demarcated.

He went on to add that the overall situation along the border was "peaceful".

"The main thing is that in the absence of a demarcated border, there is a difference of perception. Sometimes incursions take place when they go to areas which they think is with them and sometimes we also do that," he said.

Antony said as a follow-up to the decision taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao in April this year, a joint mechanism to tackle border issues would be established in the next few months.

"There was an incident (of incursion) like that few months back and we have conveyed our concerns to them.... Of late, we have taken a step to constitute a mechanism to tackle these issues on the border. I am hopeful that with this mechanism, which will come in few months, things will improve," he said.

The mechanism will explore areas of cooperation in border areas like border trade and movement.

The Minister said the proposed mechanism will comprise of all stakeholders including the "military and paramilitary elements and will be coordinated by the External Affairs Ministry."