Two months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Arunachal Pradesh tour kicked off a diplomatic row with China, Defence Minister A K Antony will visit troops on the Sino-Indian border in Tawang, a region that has been a major bone of contention between the countries.

Antony, who had to call off two attempts to visit the region in the past due to bad weather, is scheduled to arrive in the garrison town on April 5 and is expected to spend a night with troops on the frontier.

The Defence Minister, who is looking at gaining a first-hand assessment of the situation on the border, will be accompanied by Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor and Defence Secretary Vijay Singh, besides senior officials from the ministry.

Antony has expressed his desire to visit the region several times in the past and is keen to take a look at the border that has been in the news for frequent incursions by Chinese troops and the recent “destruction” of a Buddha statue. The minister had visited the Sino-Indian border at the Nathu La pass in December last year and had drawn attention to the massive infrastructure development on the Chinese side.

Antony will be the first minister to visit Tawang after Singh’s Arunachal Pradesh tour in January. Beijing had lodged a complaint in February, expressing concerns on a statement by the PM that called Arunachal “our land of the rising sun.”

The complaint, which was initially conveyed at a junior diplomatic level and was later announced publicly, snowballed into a controversy and evoked a strong reaction from India. New Delhi reaffirmed its stand that Arunachal is an integral part of the nation and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had pointed out that India has a “regular representation in Parliament” elected by the people of Arunachal.

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