Border Personnel Meeting points are locations along the disputed Sino-Indian territories on Line of Actual Control (LAC) where the armies of both countries hold ceremonial and practical meetings to resolve border issues and improve relations. While border meetings have been held since the 1990s, the first formal Border Personnel Meeting point was established in 2013. There are five meeting points: two in the Indian Union Territory of Ladakh, one in Sikkim, and two in Arunachal Pradesh in India's Central and Eastern sectors.
India has identified the specific Patrol Points with the specified route and the maximum depth up to which Indian troops usually patrol into the disputed territory on LAC. Patrolling points provide a truer sense of the extent of India's limits of actual control.
History
The border between China and India is in length and often in sparsely populated areas. Its exact location has never been formally defined and is thus vague and in dispute. Both governments patrol up to where they each believe the border lies. Indian and China began discussing the border in the 1980s.
One aspect of an initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve Indo-Chinese relations and reduce border tension was the creation of formal locations to hold Border Personnel Meetings. Border Personnel Meeting points were established after the signing of a Border Defense Cooperation Agreement in October 2013. The first three formal BPM Points were opened shortly after the agreement. Two additional locations were opened in 2015.
Sino-Indian dispute is seen as the territory slicing aspect, one of many components, of China's salami slice strategy.
BPM usage and types
To facilitate cooperation and peace at the disputed border through consultation and interaction, the armies of both countries, the Indian Army and China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), hold meetings near the border called Border Personnel Meetings (BPMs). These meeting have been held since 1995. Formal meeting points are at fixed locations and have infrastructure. Before they were used, meetings were not in permanent locations and could have been on either the Indian or Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
There are two types of BPMs. A ceremonial BPM is used for cultural exchange to build friendship and otherwise improve to bilateral defense relations between the two armies. Ceremonial BPMs have been held on New Year's Day (January 1), India's Republic Day (January 26), Harvest Festival (April 14), May 15, PLA Day, which commemorates the establishment of the Chinese PLA (August 1), and Indian Independence Day (August 15). These meetings include the playing of each country's national anthem and saluting of their respective flags, and ceremonial addresses by representative of both armies.
A BPM Flag Meeting is a meeting between the armies "used to resolve local issues like patrols inadvertently crossing over and prevents flare-ups".
Summary of BPM point locations
BPM points at mountain passes along the border, from west to east, are:
Details of BPM point locations
Moldo/Chushul - Spanggur-China
Chushul is in the Leh district of the Indian state of Ladakh region. The meeting point is named after the nearby town (Chushul) or the mountain pass (Spanggur Gap). An October 1, 2015 meeting was held there and simultaneously in Daulat Beg Oldi in which issues relating to a border confrontation in Ladakh in the prior month were resolved. Both countries agreed to return their troops to the previous positions. The meeting point and a nearby 1962 Sino-Indian War memorial are a tourist attraction. There is a meeting hut there.
Nathu La
Nathu La is a mountain pass in the Indian state of Sikkim and once part of the historic Silk Road. It is also one of three open trading border posts between China and India. Along with Bum La Pass, it was one of the first two informal locations used in the first decade of BPMs.
Bum La Pass
Bum La Pass is a mountain pass in the Tawang district of the Indian state Arunachal Pradesh, north of the town of Tawang at an altitude of . Fierce fighting took place there during the 1962 border war when China invaded India through the pass.
Ceremonial meetings were held there every year on August 15 (Indian Independence Day) from 2006 to 2016. The Chinese did not participate in 2017 due to a border standoff in Doklam. Both armies resumed meeting on October 30, their first since the conflict ended on August 28. Along with Nathu La, it was one of the first two informal locations used in the first decade of BPMs.