Post Doklam, China offers to resume military drills with India

NEW DELHI: China has reached out to India with an offer to resume military exchanges that it had put on an unexplained hold just before last year’s Dokalam standoff, signaling an important shift ahead of defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s visit to Beijing next week.

ET has reliably gathered that China has sent in an official proposal with a calendar of activities, which the two militaries can carry out as confidence-building measures through the remaining part of this year.

The proposal has been made just before snow begins to melt in Dokalam.


Sitharaman, who will be in Beijing for a SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) meeting on April 24, is expected to take this conversation further with China’s new defence minister Wei Fenghe. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will also be in Beijing for a SCO foreign ministers meet around the same time.

The annual military exchange currently stands suspended.

Usually, a calendar is drawn up through a defence secretary-level conversation at the beginning of each year.

In 2016-end, India shared its proposal for military exchanges for 2017 but the Chinese side did not respond.

Script Different This Time
As a result, the defence secretary-level talks could not be scheduled and by June 2017, Chinese forces were in Dokalam.

The entire year went without any exchange or confidence-building effort despite both sides withdrawing after a 70-day stand-off.

This time China has made the first move, sending in its proposal for a calendar of activities first. If the two ministers agree to take this forward, then a defence secretary-level conversation may be needed to firm up the plan and have an engagement matrix in place within the next few months.

India, on its part, is closely assessing the Chinese move, which is in contrast to reports of Chinese troop buildup on the disputed segment of the Dokalam plateau with Bhutan.

The script, sources pointed out, appears quite different from last year and may have to do with the assurance to Xi’s continuation.

With a new team in place and larger global profile in mind, Beijing may not want to get bogged down by border controversies.

One of the key reasons that the Dokalam standoff could be resolved was because China did not want this to vitiate the BRICS Summit in Xiamen that year. India had indicated that it may have to consider pulling out if the stalemate continued.

Also, the fact that China has a new defence minister, who is said to enjoy Xi’s trust will be a plus. Wei was the head of the PLA’s Rocket Force before being elevated as defence minister in last month’s shake-up.

The annual military exchanges between India and China have been a routine affair involving a joint exercise called ‘Hand-in-Hand’, reciprocal visits by army commanders responsible for the areas bordering the two countries and other such exchanges.