India-China Lt General-level dialogue will reduce border friction

Even though both sides are tight-lipped about military dialogue, it is quite evident that the dates for General level dialogue will be set after Tianjin meet.

Updated on: Aug 24, 2025, 11:16:42 IST

By Shishir Gupta

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When Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO summit at Tianjin on August 31-September 1, the two countries will move further towards normalization of ties including Lt Gen level Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) in three sectors and resumption of air services.

It was at Kazan on October 23, 2024, that PM Modi and President Xi Jinping decided to normalize bilateral ties.

While the next logical step towards bilateral normalization of ties includes resumption of military to military ties as a confidence building measure, the decision to hold Lt General-Major General level dialogue between Indian Army and PLA in Chushul, Nathu La and Kibuthoo or Yangtze in western, middle and eastern sector is a big move in that direction. As of now, the only general level dialogue takes place between 14th Corps Commander and Sinkiang Military Division commander in Chushul in Eastern Ladakh. The decision to upgrade military dialogue on the border to General level was taken in the 24th round of Special Representative talks on August 19.

Even though both sides are tight-lipped about the military dialogue, it is quite evident that the dates for General level dialogue will be set after Tianjin bilateral meeting between the two leaders. “ If six rounds of dialogue take place between apex military formation commanders in a year, then chances are that all LAC friction issues get sorted out on ground in real time. And if the border remains peace and tranquil, then there is no reason why the bilateral ties take an upswing between the two Asian giants,” said a China expert.

The India-China normalization is coming at a time when both countries are being pushed by US President Donald Trump on trade tariffs. While India is expected to be hit by 25 per cent additional tariff on August 27, taking the total tariffs to 50 per cent, China has already been hit by 54 per cent tariff with US President giving a 90 day reprieve on additional tariffs.

During the meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on August 19, US was the elephant in the room as both ministers felt that their countries were being unfairly targeted by US and hence there was a need for India and China to come close to each other to protect their markets.

While India understands the limits to convergence with China, US, by weaponizing tariffs and making India as a villain of piece for Ukraine war, has clawed out any illusion about bonhomie with Washington in the minds of Indian political leadership and the masses. By putting another 25 per cent tariff on August 27, US Trump administration will ensure that the bilateral ties will definitely turn cold if not frozen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Shishir Gupta
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.Read More

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