INDIA, CHINA PUT BEHIND THE DOKLAM STANDOFF

 New Delhi  : Putting behind tension at the borders from 73-day long military standoff at Doklam, the Armies of India and China have decided to resume military engagements, including the seventh edition of the joint annual exercise.

Both sides of the defence officials also decided in a meeting in November to formally have a hotline at the level of the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMO) to defuse tension through immediate talks, defence ministry sources said. They said some technical issues are being sorted out and they hope that the hotline will start functioning soon.

The two sides are set to revive the joint exercise that was suspended last year following the Doklam face-off. China was to host the exercise in October-November as per the arrangement of each conducting it by rotation. It has agreed to soon invite India for conducting the “hand-in-hand” exercise.

There have been six editions of the exercise so far.

The “hand-in-hand” exercise was suspended for five years from 2010-2014 after Beijing refused to give visa to then Northern Army Commander Lt General B S Jaswal on the ground that he was based in Jammu and Kashmir which is a disputed territory. The last joint exercise was conducted by the two armies in eastern Ladakh in October 2016.