Indian, Chinese troops exchange beer, sweet after face-off

New Delhi, Aug 9, 2013 (PTI): Indian and Chinese troops had a face-off in Sikkim earlier this week which, however, ended in a friendly exchange of beer and rasgullas.

The face-off happened near the Tangkar La pass at the height of over 16,000 feet in eastern Sikkim after a Chinese patrol entered into territory claimed by India, sources told PTI here.

The Chinese patrol, which was travelling in two light vehicles, was monitored by the Indian team comprising a young Lieutenant and nine jawans there, they said.

 

The Indian patrol intercepted the Chinese patrol at the Tangkar La pass and after that, they showed banners to each other asking to leave the area and go back into their respective territories.

At the time of parting, the Chinese troops presented cans of Budweiser beer to the Indian patrol while our troops gifted them a pack of rasgullas, they said.

In the recent past, there have been a spate of incursions from the Chinese side into the Indian territory all along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between the two sides stretching from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir in north to Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast.

On the transgressions by Chinese troops, Defence Minister A K Antony had recently said that "there is no commonly delineated Line of Actual Control (LAC) between India and China. There are areas along the border where India and China have different perceptions of the LAC and both sides undertake patrols up to their respective positions there."

"On account of differences in perception of LAC, certain transgression incidents do take place on ground. Government regularly takes up any transgression with the Chinese side through established mechanisms," he had said.