BEIJING – The Indian and Chinese militaries have reportedly agreed on thelong-pending proposal to set up a hotline between their headquarters afterthe informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President XiJinping in Wuhan, Chinese state media reported today, PTI has reported.
Prime Minister Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping last week in anunprecedented two-day ‘heart-to-heart’ summit to “solidify” the India-Chinarelationship and build on trust between the two countries.
“Leaders of the two nations have reportedly agreed to set up a hotlinebetween their respective military headquarters,” state-run daily GlobalTimes reported today.
The reported move comes after PM Modi and Xi Jinping agreed to issue”strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthencommunication in order to build trust and mutual understanding and enhancepredictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs.”
PM Modi met Chinese President Xi Jinping last week in an unprecedentedtwo-day ‘heart-to-heart’ summit
“The two leaders further directed their militaries to earnestly implementvarious confidence building measures (CBM) agreed upon between the twosides, including the principle of mutual and equal security, and strengthenexisting institutional arrangements and information sharing mechanisms toprevent incidents in border regions,” the Ministry of External Affairs hadsaid in a press release after the summit meet between the two leaders.
The hotline was regarded as a major confidence building measure as it wouldenable both the military headquarters to intensify communication to averttensions during border patrol along the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control(LAC) and to avert standoffs like in Doklam.
The troops of India and China stood eye-to-eye in the 73-day standoff inDoklam which began on June 16 last year after the Indian Army stopped theillegal construction of a road by the Chinese Army in the disputed area.
Bhutan and China have a dispute over Doklam. The face-off had ended onAugust 28.
The hotline was under discussion for long, but reportedly bogged down overprocedures like what level it should be established in at the headquarters.
The Chinese military too underwent major reforms initiated by President Xiunder which its command structures have undergone major changes. Forinstance, India and Pakistan have hotline facilities between DirectorGenerals of Military Operations or DGMOs. But in the context of China, theChinese military has to identify a designated official to operate such afacility.