Top Chinese military delegation heads for India to discuss confidence building measures

NEW DELHI: A top Chinese military delegation will land in India on Sunday to discuss measures to bolster CBMs along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control, in the backdrop of not much headway being registered either in the long-standing boundary dispute or military engagement at different levels.

Defence ministry sources on Thursday said the 26-member delegation led by General Fan Changlong, who as vice-chairman of the all-powerful Central Military Commission is the highest-ranking Chinese general, will be in India from November 15 to 17.





The delegation includes other top officers like Admiral Sun Jianguo, a submariner who is in line to become China's next Navy chief in 2017, and Lt-Gen Zhu Fuxi, the political commissar of the Chengdu Military Region that faces India. Interestingly, the Chinese delegation will be coming to India via Pakistan, reaffirming the long-standing close strategic ties between Islamabad and Beijing.

"It's the highest-level People's Liberation Army ( PLA) delegation to visit India in a decade. But no major breakthrough is expected during the visit, though it might set the stage for the 19th round of border talks between the special representatives and the 8th annual defence dialogue between the two countries," said a source.

The border defence cooperation agreement (BDCA), inked between the two countries in October 2013, is yet to become fully operational on the ground to ensure troop face-offs are effectively defused and managed at the local level itself. The troop confrontations continue to take place all along the LAC, with eastern Ladakh emerging a major flashpoint in recent times.

With both sides resorting to aggressive patrolling to lay claims to disputed areas, rival troops also continue to tail each other's patrols, which was specifically prohibited by the BDCA. The proposed hotline between the top military hierarchy, like the DGMO-level one between India and Pakistan, is also yet to become a concrete reality.

Similarly, the institutionalised mechanism for regular face-to-face interactions between commanders-in-chief of the Indian Eastern Army Command and Chinese Chengdu Military Region as well as Northern Army Command and Lanzhou Military Region has not been firmed up yet despite a few reciprocal visits.

But unlike the volatile Line of Control with Pakistan, which witnesses daily exchange of heavy fire, the LAC has not seen even a bullet being fired in anger for decades. The Indian and Chinese armies also conducted their bilateral Hand-in-Hand counter-terrorism exercise in Kunming last month, which though small in terms of scale and scope is a major CBM between the two forces.

The two armies have also operationalised their fifth border personnel meeting (BPM) point at Daulat Beg Oldi in August, which adds to the existing ones at Chushul (Ladakh), Nathu La ( Sikkim), Bum La and Kibithu (Arunachal).

India, however, remains worried about China's continuing modernization of its conventional and nuclear forces, space and cyber warfare capabilities at a scorching pace. The increasing forays by Chinese diesel-electric as well as nuclear submarines in the Indian Ocean have further strengthened the worries in India of being strategically encircled.