India, China to talk to build trust between their Armies

India and China are expected to discuss  measures to build trust between their Armies during the four-day visit of  Chinese Defence Minister and State councillor Wei Fenghe from Tuesday.

The Armies of both the nations,  guarding the nearly 3,500 km Sino-India border, have frequently been engaged in skirmishes but they have not opened fires at each other since 1962 post-war ceasefire.

Officials here said that after the last year’s Doklam standoff, there is an urgent need to take steps to avoid such situation in the future. The visit of Wei Fenghe is seen as a  step in that direction by China.

In the delegation level talks, both sides are expected to deliberate on current situation along the  Doklam plateau and the Indian side may also raise the issue of presence of sizeable number of Chinese troops in North Doklam.

Doklam, in the Sikkim sector, is a strategically important area which is claimed by Bhutan. India has been acting as security guarantor to the tiny country in the sensitive region. 

Officials said that  the primary objective of Wei’s visit is to deliberate with Indian defence establishment on implementation of decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in their informal summit in Wuhan in April.

In the summit Modi and Xi resolved to open a new chapter in ties and directed their militaries to boost coordination along the border, months after the most serious military faceoff in decades between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in Doklam triggered fears of a war.

The sources said both sides will discuss implementation of decisions taken during the Wuhan summit which were aimed at improving mutual trust and avoid repeat of any Doklam-like face-offs.

Wei, who is a key member in China’s State Council — the executive organ of China’s central Government — is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Modi and hold restricted as well as delegation-level talks with his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman, on Wednesday. The Chinese Defence Minister is also likely to visit an Indian military establishment during his trip.

“A range of issues and options will be deliberated upon at the talks which will be in sync with what the leadership of the two countries had agreed to in the Wuhan summit,” said a source in the military establishment here.

The two sides are likely to deliberate on a mechanism under which troops from both sides will inform each other before carrying out any patrolling on the disputed areas along the nearly 4,000-km border.The sources said both sides will also attempt to resolve differences in setting up of a hotline between the armies of the two countries.

After the Wuhan summit, both sides revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups along the disputed border. But, the initiative hit roadblocks over differences on issues relating to protocol and technical aspect of the hotline.

The Indian Army has been maintaining that the hotline should be between its Director General of Military Operations (DGMOs) and his equivalent official in Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). However, Beijing proposed that the deputy commander of its Chengdu-based Western Theatre Command would engage with the Indian DGMO.

The Indian Army is opposed to the Chinese proposal, insisting that an officer equivalent to Indian DGMO at PLA’s headquarters should be deputed for the communication through the hotline.

Currently, India and Pakistan have a hotline between their DGMOs. The hotline between India and China was first mooted by the two countries in 2013.

An eight-member Chinese military delegation led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command, visited India in June as a follow-up to the Wuhan summit.