Times of India
Rajat Pandit,
September 17, 2015
NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding frequent troop face-offs along the Line of Actual Control, including the recent one at Burtse in Ladakh, India and China are now all set to conduct another bilateral “Hand-in-Hand” (HiH) military exercise as a confidence-building measure between the world’s largest and second-largest armies.
Sources say the HiH exercise will be held at Kunming in China from October 11 to 23, with India earmarking a detachment of soldiers from the famed Naga Regiment to match their combat skills with People’s Liberation (PLA) troops there.
This comes soon after the two armies operationalised their fifth border personnel meeting (BPM) point at Daulat Beg Oldi last month, which adds to the existing ones at Chushul (Ladakh), Nathu La (Sikkim), Bum La and Kibithu (Arunachal).
The HiH exercises, additional BPM points, the border defence cooperation agreement inked in October 2013 and proposed hotlines between top commanders, are all designed to bridge the “trust deficit” between the two armies ranged against each other along the 4,057-km LAC.
But though not a shot has been fired along the LAC for decades now, it cannot mask the wariness with which the Indian security establishment is viewing the accelerated modernisation of the PLA, which is acquiring potent trans-border, space and cyberspace military capabilities at a rapid clip.
Even though there is realisation that China is primarily trying to counter the ongoing “rebalance” of US military forces to the Asia-Pacific, the expanding footprint of Chinese nuclear and conventional submarines in the Indian Ocean Region over the last year has only served to accentuate the concerns here.
Officials say the proposed 300,000 troop-cut in the 2.3 million-strong PLA by 2017, which was announced by Chinese President XI Jinping on September 3, is more of an endeavour to slash the non-combatant flab in the ground forces, which are now focusing on motorised brigades and quick-reaction forces.
“Simultaneously, China is strengthening its naval and air forces for out-of-area operations as well as expanding its already large missile inventory, including anti-ship and anti-satellite missiles,” said an official. China’s defence white paper in May, after all, ominously vowed to increase its “open seas protection” far from its shores.
Already several leagues behind China in terms of military capabilities and border infrastructure, India conversely is still struggling to modernize its armed forces as well as improve the existing poor teeth-to-tail combat ratio.
Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has announced plans to reform the cumbersome defence procurement procedure to streamline military modernization as well as slash the non-operational “flab” of the 1.18-million strong Army. But, along with the “Make in India” policy to build a strong domestic defence-industrial base, they are still far away from becoming concrete realities on the ground.
