For the first time in history, India China militaries to set up direct hotline
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NEW DELHI - India and China revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups between the two militaries along their disputed border.
India and China will attempt to resolve differences in setting up of a hotline soon between the Armies of the two countries, during Chinese Defence Minister Wei Fenghe’s upcoming visit in New Delhi, official sources said.
After the Wuhan summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, both sides revived the long-pending proposal to set up the hotline so as to avoid flare-ups between the two militaries along their disputed border.
But, the initiative hit a roadblock over differences between the two sides on issues relating to protocol and technical aspect of the hotline.
China’s State Councillor and Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe is scheduled to visit India later this month.
While the Indian Army has been maintaining that the hotline should be between its Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) and his equivalent official in Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), Beijing proposed that Deputy Commander of its Chengdu-based Western Theatre Command would engage with the Indian DGMO, the sources said.
It is learnt that Chinese PLA has also conveyed to Indian Army that they do not have any DGMO in its headquarters and that it was favouring engaging the Western Theatre Command which looks after the Sino-Indian border.
However, the Indian side feels the protocol must be maintained and equating the Indian Army headquarters to PLA’s Western Theatre Command in Chengdu was not proper.
Three commands of the Indian Army — the Kolkata-based eastern command, the central command headquartered at Lucknow and the northern command, headquartered at Udhampur — have been tasked to keep an eye on the nearly 3,500 km-long border with China.
