E-Paper
Ties with India improved, says China’s military; floats some new ideas
mportant decisions at the border should be left to the front-line forces, the PLA has suggested in a rare article on Sino-India military ties published this week in the influential PLA Daily.
Indian and Chinese militaries should expand engagement between front-line units including training for border guards at each other’s universities and open a defence hotline between adjacent military regions to “resolutely” ensure that Doklam-like standoffs don’t recur, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has suggested.
Further, the two countries should establish a regular border meeting mechanism for the generals of the respective theatre commands.
Important decisions at the border should be left to the front-line forces, the PLA has suggested in a rare article on Sino-India military ties published this week in the influential PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military.
It further called for “cooperation between navies, increase exchanges of young military officers, promote university, academic, and public affairs exchanges, expand new areas of cooperation, and strengthen cooperation in multilateral frameworks such as the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation)”.
It was jointly written by Zhao Xiaozhuo and Wang Yu from the War Studies College of the Chinese PLA Academy of Military Sciences, and the Joint Service Academy of the Chinese PLA National Defence University.
The article was published under the headline “China-India Military Relations Improve Markedly” in the context of the armed forces’ standoff last year near the Sikkim border.
Border troops were locked in a standoff for 73 days in the Doklam area, known as Donglang in China, near the Sikkim border, which is under China’s control but claimed by Bhutan.
Protracted negotiations between the two countries resolved the problem end of August last year.
“Border disputes such as ‘tent confrontation’ and ‘Donglang event’ have all plagued the development of bilateral relations. Since this year, the relationship between the two militaries has improved markedly with the rapid recovery of China-India relations,” it said.
A slew of suggestions followed to maintain the momentum of peace.
“Looking forward to the future, the two sides should promote the establishment of a regular border meeting mechanism for the generals, open the border defence hotline of the adjacent military regions, carry out personnel exchanges between the adjacent theater commands and the corresponding services at all levels, strengthen exchanges between the front-line units, carry out exchange and training for border guards in the other’s colleges and universities, and resolutely put an end to similar incidents as ‘Donglang event’,” the article said.
It added that as long as the consensus reached by the two countries could be extended to “…an action level and pass the upper-level decision to the front-line forces as well as properly control their differences, the two militaries can promote the win-win cooperation, making their military relations serving as a positive factor for their stable bilateral ties”.
The authors said the “biggest problem is the pending border issue” but a number of agreements between the two governments and their militaries, New Delhi and Beijing have managed to control differences.
In what is rarely recollected by the Chinese government, the authors mentioned:
“India was one of the first countries to recognise the new China and to propose restoring China’s legitimate seat in the United Nations (UN). China, India and Myanmar jointly advocated the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and achieved a pioneering work in the history of international relations.”
