India to send Army team to China next month

In a major thaw in India-China military relations that were edgy after 2017 standoff for 73 days at Doklam, India is sending a military delegation to China in the middle of next month for talks to improve relations by cutting down the differences that cause repeated conflicts along the 3488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC), the de-facto un-demarcated boundary between the two countries.

To be led by a top Indian Army commander, this will be the first such high-level military visit to Beijing since December 2015 when the then Northern Army Commander Lt Gen DS Hooda had led a delegation.

It also puts behind the ugly spat over China refusing visa in August 2010 to then Northern Commander Lt General Baljit Jaswal on the ground that he commands a ‘disputed area’ of Jammu and Kashmir and so not welcome in China.

It is still not decided who will lead the delegation but indications are that it would be either Lt Gen Ranbir Singh heading the Northern Army Command or Lt Gen Abhay Krishna, commander of the Kolkata-based Eastern Command. Most of the recent tensions have been in the Eastern Command area and so Krishna may be picked up to head the delegation, the defence ministry sources said.