Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there should be greater interaction between India and China and a hotline will enable high-level decision-makers of both countries to quickly sort out problems at the ground level.
A hotline will help reduce the time taken to reach empowered decision-makers when there is a crisis at the ground level, she said at a seminar on ‘Trends and Transformations in China’s Geo-Politics, Strategy, Society and Business’, organised by Chennai Centre for China Studies and National Maritime Foundations on Friday.
Frequent stand-offs
The Minister was referring to the 72-day China-India military border stand-off over Chinese construction in Doklam last year.
“There are increased transgression across our perception of Line of Actual Control by the People's Liberation Army troops and this results in frequent face-off. This has been now a discernible factor that is emerging on the northern borders.
“We have underlined the fact that border-personnel meet, the flag officers meet and all that happen. But, we need to have that hotline, which will easily, sooner within a short term help us in being ready for a resolution. This is one of the things I have highlighted. Frequent dialogue between leaders of two countries in long term will immensely benefit two countries. It is also important that various existing mechanisms are kept active for confidence building,” she said.
Greater engagement
Despite the face off, “I would lay emphasis on the fact there is now a greater engagement with China,” she said. Participation in Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is giving India a greater opportunity for engagement with China. Whether it is border personnel meet, dispute redressal meet or crisis management meet — all are actively engaged now, she added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s USP is in forging personal level relationship with Chinese leaders, especially with President Xi Jinping, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin to show that vigorous engagement is possible even in informal meetings.
Chinese force revamp
Sitharaman said post-October 2017, there is lot of rationalising of China’s armed forces to make it ‘lean and mean’ with more dependence on technology. (There is a reduction of nearly 3 lakh personnel). China is moving towards PLA Navy, PLA Air Force and PLA rockets as opposed to erstwhile emphasis only on PLA.
“It is important for India to understand where this is going to crystallise and how we are ready with the response,” she said.