The pact was signed on November 29, 1996 during during the visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin to New Delhi. The agreement is described to have added a new dimension to the positive process of evolving Sino-Indian CBMs.
Experts on both sides have dubbed this document as the first “No War” pact between India and China.
The key feature of the pact was that it was very specific in pointing out the two countries' areas of agreement, something that is generally not possible between former adversaries who continue to have major disagreements.
The agreement has since been ratified by both sides and the Instruments of Ratification were exchanged by both sides during the Tenth meeting of Sino-Indian Joint Working Group in New Delhi in August 1997.
Apart from signalling the completion of basic framework of CBMs, this agreement also marks the beginning of major initiatives in actually resolving the border dispute and initial steps towards this have been incorporated in the document.