Chinese defence minister Gen Wei Fenghe’s visit is regarded as a full-fledged bilateral visit aimed at solidifying military ties in the larger improvement of relations after this year’s informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping.

The meeting takes forward developments after the Wuhan summit that sought to embark upon a new road to improve ties between the two countries. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said ahead of Gen Wei’s visit, “For some time, you would have noticed that China-India relations are improving steadily. Exchanges and cooperation in all areas have moved forward including the military to military exchanges,” he said while replying to a question on the significance of Gen Wei's visit to India.

While no agreements are expected during Gen Wei's visit, officials in Beijing said that it was aimed at improving communication between the two militaries at the highest level as well as the atmospherics which would send a positive signal to the troops on the ground along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control.

This will be the second meeting this year between the Indian and Chinese defence ministers. Nirmala Sitharaman met him during her visit to Beijing in April to take part in the defence ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

The two countries have opened several points for heads of the ground forces to meet periodically to improve relations. But so far both militaries have not been able to operationalise efforts to establish a hotline facility between their military headquarters due to procedural issues.

The hotline between the two militaries was regarded as a major confidence-building measure as it would enable both the headquarters to intensify communication to avert tensions between border patrols and to avoid standoffs like Doklam.

Gen Wei's visit signals that relations between the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and the Indian Army have generally recovered, Qian Feng, a research fellow at the National Strategy Institute of Tsinghua University, told the Global Times recently, said a PTI report.

"The military relationship has entered a positive development track with overall improvement and a warming trend in political relations between the two countries," he said.