India and China are set to sign their first ever security cooperation agreement today

• China’s Minister of Public Security, Zhao Kezhi, will sit down with Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister, in New Delhi today to sign the bilateral agreement, according to a report by the Press Trust of India.
  
• The pact will cover a number of areas, including but not limited to counter-terrorism operations, drug and human trafficking, strategic intelligence sharing and natural disaster mitigation.
  
• The agreement has reportedly been in the works since 2015, undergoing multiple amendments based on objections raised by both sides
  

The Doklam stand-off seems like a distant memory. A year after the two-month border skirmish, the Modi administration is all set to sign India’s first ever security cooperation pact with China. According to a report by the Press Trust of India, China’s Minister of Public Security, Zhao Kezhi, will sit down with Rajnath Singh, the Union Home Minister, in New Delhi today to sign the bilateral agreement.

The pact will cover a number of areas, including but not limited to counter-terrorism operations, drug and human trafficking, strategic intelligence sharing, natural disaster mitigation as well as China’s infrastructure development activities in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). Kezhi will also meet Ajit Doval, India’s National Security Advisor, to discuss certain aspects of the agreement. The pact could portend a future treaty on the exchange of prisoners.

All will not be smooth sailing, however. India is likely to raise a number of contentious issues with China. Firstly, it will try and establish a consensus on the placement of Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) - a terrorist outfit in Pakistan aimed at taking back Kashmir), on the UN sanctions list. It will also cover the China’s practice of granting stapled visas to residents of disputed areas in Arunachal Pradesh. There will, however, be no mention of the line of control or border disputes.

The agreement has reportedly been in the works since 2015, undergoing multiple amendments based on objections raised by both sides. It was given a renewed impetus in April this year after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at an informal summit in Wuhan.

As China takes a larger role in South Asia, it has also solicited India’s help in working in other countries. Earlier this month, India and China started a programme to jointly train Afghan diplomats. The joint approach towards development could be extended to other countries in the region such as Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal.