What is the significance of the internal security pact between India and China?

India and China have signed an internal security agreement as part of Wuhan summit. This is a step forward for achieving a strategic cooperation by India and China. The agreement signifies the commitment between the two countries to address the conflicts through collaboration.

Significance of the internal security agreement

The pact covers the areas such as intelligence sharing, exchange programme, sharing of best practices, and cooperation in disaster mitigation besides others. This can result in wide array of benefits

• The pact will provide a structural framework to deal with areas of mutual interests such as narcotic smuggling, terrorism, human trafficking, and disaster management.
• With increasing trade, investments and people to people contact between the two countries the pact can aid in dealing with the issues relating to arrests and imprisonment of their respective nationals.
• The sharing of intelligence can aid in pre-empting criminal acts.
• It will aid in dealing with cross-border infiltration.
• Many rivers flow from China into India. The agreement can aid in disaster management as there are often situations where forewarning is vital to prevent casualties from floods or landslides downriver.

The signing of the agreement sends an important signal that despite the differences the two countries can handle and collaborate to achieve common good. The agreement is a step forward in getting the two countries to manage the difficult areas of their relationship and find areas of convergence, and also promote better coordination between them.