India, China hold talks to set up hotline between defence ministries, says Beijing

India and China are holding talks to update a 12-year-old defence agreement and establish a hotline between the two defence ministries as part of the confidence building measures, a top Chinese defence ministry official said on Thursday.

During Chinese Defence Minister General Wei Fenghe’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Indian counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi last week, the two sides had in-depth discussions on how to further implement the important consensus reached between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said.

Modi and Xi, during their first-ever informal summit in Wuhan in April, reached a consensus on managing various aspects of India-China relations including the two militaries, especially in the backdrop of the Doklam standoff. The hotline between the two militaries was regarded as a major Confidence Building Measure as it would enable both the headquarters to intensify communication to avert tensions between border patrols and to avoid standoffs like Doklam.

Tensions between India and China reached peak during a 73-day standoff in Doklam over Beijing’s construction of a road. The standoff ended after both sides agreed to disengage.

Wu said the countries are in consultations to work on a new MoU between the defence ministries. “In 2006, India and China signed an MoU on defence exchanges and cooperation. The Indian side conveyed its willingness to sign a new version of the MoU. China holds a positive attitude towards it and the two sides are in communication with each other,” Wu said. The 2006 MoU focussed on maintaining frequent exchanges between the leaders and high-level functionaries of the defence ministries, annual dialogue and holding joint military exchanges among others.

“If the dragon and elephant dance together, they will both gain and it will help Asia continue to be prosperous. If they compete and fight with each other, it will benefit neither but others,” Wu said.