In a two-hour meeting held between Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chinese Minister of National Defence General Wei Fenghe on Thursday, it was decided to strengthen a new bilateral treaty on defense cooperation and acquiesced to increase interaction between their military forces to prevent 73-day Doklam like ‘standoffs along the disputed border’, reported PTI.
The officials said that the focus of the meeting was to build trust between both sides of the armies protecting 3,500 km Sino-India border.
It was also resolved to “early operationalization of the proposed hotline” between the two armies in order to have improved communication and mutual trust, reported PTI.
The defense ministry released a statement saying, “It was decided to expand the engagement between their armed forces relating to training, joint exercises and other professional interactions. Both sides also decided to work towards a new bilateral MoU on defense exchanges and cooperation to replace the MoU signed in 2006.”
The statement further said, “It was agreed to work towards full implementation of ongoing confidence building measures as well as greater interactions at the working level to ensure the maintenance of peace and tranquillity, including early operationalization of the hotline between the relevant departments of their armed forces.”
PTI reported the sources claimed that Sitharaman raised the issue of “security challenges” faced by India due to “cross-border terrorism”, the requirement of assuring “freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea”. She discussed her concerns on “bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan”. Defence Minister Sitharaman also expressed her displeasure on the USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor which passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK), saying it disregards India’s autonomy.
Wei Fenghe arrived in India on Tuesday on a four-day visit with a purpose of finding measures to improve communication and build mutual trust between the two armies.
They confirmed in the meeting that the proposed hotline between the armies should be operationalized soon. Although it is not clear whether the two countries have resolved their issues which led to the delay of its operationalization, reported PTI.