For the first time, senior Indian Army officers interacted with the Chinese General responsible for troop operations on implementing the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA). This is the latest border confidence building measure agreed to by the two sides late last year.
For two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday, a People’s Liberation Army team lead by Deputy Chief of General Staff (Operations) Lt. Gen. Qi Jianguo discussed with its Indian Army counterparts, led by Vice Chief of Army Staff Dalbir Singh Suhag, prospects of installing hotlines and increased interaction between the two armies at various levels, including operational commanders, command and general headquarters.
Interestingly, the Chinese side announced their Defence Minister General Chang Wanquan’s plans to visit India later this year and confirmed plans for a joint army exercise at a time when the two sides are trying to resolve their differences over sending a youth delegation to Beijing next month in which Arunachal Pradesh, one of the States bordering China, is a sticking point.
Adhering to its stand of Arunachal Pradesh being a part of China, the Chinese Embassy here reportedly advised India not to include representatives from the state in the youth delegation. The implication is that youngsters from the State will be given stapled visas, which are not entertained by Indian immigration authorities. China dropped this stipulation for Jammu & Kashmir after Indian officials pointed out that the stapled visa policy should also be implemented for Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Official sources, however, sought to set apart both issues by pointing out that the current army interaction was intended to iron out irritants surfacing in day-to-day border management. This has greater security implications as was brought out by the incursion of Chinese troops in eastern Ladakh early last year. There have also been instances of face-to-face confrontations between patrols and also dispute over whether an army patrol from one side could patrol an area claimed by the other.
Other official sources drew attention to the profile of Gen. Jianguo, leader of the Chinese PLA delegation, who was closely involved in negotiating the BDCA with the Indian side. “Never before we have had an interaction with PLA’s senior-most officer in-charge of operations and the main thing is that he and his team members were not interacting on the field but across the table.” he observed.
