Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, July 1: Army chief Gen Bikram Singh is proceedings on a four days visit to China as the head of high level delegation from tomorrow. This visit assumed special significance in the light of increasing defence cooperation and an invitation from the Army chief’s Chinese counterpart.
The Army chief would be meeting top political leadership of China besides his People’s Liberation Army (PLA) counterpart during his four days visit to China lasting from July 2 to 5. This is after nine years that an Indian Army chief is visiting China, the last being Gen NC Vij, who had undertaken trip to the neighbouring country in 2005.
Official sources told the Excelsior that though there was no fixed agenda of the meeting, the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) to maintain peace along the Line of Actual Control India shared with China in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir and North Eastern India. The PLA incursions in China have witnessed steep decline after takeover of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP Government but few days back one of the incident in which Chinese boats had intruded into Indian side of Pangong lake was reported.
Sources said CBMs along the LAC, Naval exercises and joint training exercises between the armed forces of India and China would dominate the agenda of Gen Bikram Singh’s visit to China but definitely incursions by the PLA in Ladakh would figure in the meeting.
Both India and China have made it clear that they want peace on the LAC. India has also made it known to China that the PLA incursions shouldn’t be repeated though it attributed some of the incursions to un-demarcated boundary between the two countries.
Sources said Gen Bikram Singh, who is scheduled to demit the office on July 31, would also have fruitful meeting with his PLA counterpart Gen Gang Fenghui. Lt Gen Dalbir Suhag is scheduled to take over as new Army chief on August 1. This would be last foreign trip of Gen Bikram Singh as the Army chief.
During the visit, cooperation between the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Indian armed forces, exchange of high and medium level visits, CBMs on the Line of Actual Control including sports activities between border troops and basic naval exercises would be discussed during the visit, an Army official said.
The Army chief, who is also the Chairman, Chiefs of Staffs Committee, would be meeting the senior leadership of the Chinese armed forces including their Vice President Li Yuanchao, Chief of General Staff Gen Fang Fenghui and Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhangye Sui, an Army release said.
The visit assumed special significance in the light of increasing defence cooperation between the two countries and signing of the Border Defence Cooperation Agreement between the two sides in October last year.
Singh’s visit was aimed at implementing a number of steps incorporated by BDCA, which was signed for avoiding flare up situations along the over 4,000-km-long LAC where Indian and Chinese troops carry out patrolling in their claimed areas.
The Indian Army chief’s four-day visit is taking place after a gap of nine years. Former Army chief Gen N C Vij had visited China in 2005 after which military ties remained frozen until the last two years when defence ties gained momentum following improvement in political and economic relations.
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