NEW DELHI – After nearly a two-hour meeting, India and China on Thursdaydecided to work towards firming up a new bilateral agreement on defencecooperation and agreed to increase interactions between their militaries atmultiple levels to avoid Doklam-like standoffs along the disputed border.
The focus of the meeting, between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman andher Chinese counterpart, was to build mutual trust between the two armiesguarding the 3,500 km Sino-India border, officials said.
The two sides also decided on early operationalisation of the proposedhotline between the two armies as part of the confidence-building measures,the defence ministry said.
Sources said Sitharaman talked about security challenges India has beenfacing because of cross-border terrorism, its views on bringing peace andstability in Afghanistan and the need for ensuring freedom of navigationand overflight in the South China Sea. She also raised the issue of USD 46billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which is passing throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir as she noted that it violates India’s sovereignty.
The sources said the two sides primarily focused on implementing decisionstaken at the Wuhan summit in April by Prime Minister Narendra Modi andChinese President Xi Jinping which included enhancing strategiccommunication between the two armies. “It was decided to expand theengagement between their armed forces relating to training, joint exercisesand other professional interactions. Both sides also decided to worktowards a new bilateral MoU on defence exchanges and cooperation to replacethe MoU signed in 2006,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
It said Sitharaman and Wei deliberated on bilateral, regional andinternational issues in a “free, frank and constructive manner”. “It wasagreed to work towards full implementation of ongoing confidence buildingmeasures as well as greater interactions at the working level to ensure themaintenance of peace and tranquillity, including early operationalisationof the hotline between the relevant departments of their armed forces,” theministry said.