Eastern Army commander to lead a delegation to China

In an effort to further consolidate the bridge of friendship between two of the world's largest armies, Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Abhay Krishna would lead a team of Army officials to China next month.

This would be first Indian Army delegation to the communist country since the December 2015 delegation visit led by then Norther Army Commander Lt Gen D S Hooda.

In between, the two countries experienced the Doklam crisis that deteriorated the trust level between the border guarding troops.

Nearly 10 months after Doklam, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met at Wuhan, one of the things they decided was resumption of military ties between the two neighbours who fought a war in 1962 but took some confidence building measures between the two militaries in the last decade.

In accordance with the spirit of Wuhan, an 8-member People's Liberation Army delegation, led by Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of Western Theatre Command, visited India last week meeting Army Vice Chief Lt Gen D R Anbu at Delhi and 33 Corps Commander Lt Gen Pradeep M Bali at Sukna in West Bengal.

The August visit of Lt Gen Krishna and other Army officials would be a reciprocation of the Lt Gen Liu's visit, to discuss mutually agreeable steps that are required to improved the trust level between the two armies.

“It would be a significant step forward towards increasing interactions at military commander’s level and implementation of various agreements to maintain peace and tranquility on the borders,” said an official.

While the bilateral Army exercise is likely to restart after a gap, there is little progress on establishing a telephonic hot-line between the two armies.

A similar telephone link currently exists between the offices of India and Pakistan Director General of Military Operations.

Though Indian and Chinese defence ministers had agreed on establishing the telephone link between the Indian Army and the PLA, protocol and operational issues come in the way of setting up the hotline.

The Indian Army has two commands to deal with northern border whereas PLA troops now comes under a unified command. As a consequences, ideas are moving to and fro to identify the two Army offices that can be linked up through the hotline.