Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar will hold wide- ranging discussions with the Chinese leadership including bilateral Defence issues, situation on the line of Actual Control (lAC), terrorism and Confidence Building Measures during his five-day visit to Beijing starting Sunday. Incidentally, his visit comes amid strain in bilateral relations over Beijing’s move to block India’s attempt in the UN to clamp a ban on JeM chief Masood Azhar.
Parrikars visit, the first by an Indian Defence Minister after his predecessor AK Antony went there in 2013, will aim at deepening military-to-military ties and focus on the border issue. No agreements are expected during Parrikar’s visit, officials said here on Saturday.
Ensuring peace at the lAC and prevent transgressions, increasing joint exercises, visit by senior officers to each other’s defence institutes and such other confidence building measures will figure prominently during Parrikar’s parleys with the Chinese leadership.
His visit follows high-level visits by top Chinese defence officials including Central Military Commission Vice Chairman General Fan Changlong to India last year. The Commission, headed by President Xi Jinping, is the highest commanding authority of the 2.3-million strong Peoples’ liberation Army.
While the two sides had set up a dialogue mechanism under Special Representatives of both the countries to find a solution to the vexed boundary dispute spanning 3,488 km, they also operationalised a Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination to address tensions arising out of aggressive patrolling of the disputed boundary. So far, the Special Representatives have held 18 rounds of talks.
The two sides have also opened more border points for regular interactions between their officers and men as part of confidence building measures. Parrikar is also likely to take up the pending proposal of establishing hotline between Director General Military Operations(DGMO) of two countries to address issues of transgressions. India and Pakistan has such a mechanism wherein the two DGMOs talk to each other once a week and more if need be.