The fourth round of ADD, held after nearly two years, was led by India’s Defense Secretary Shashikant Sharma and Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Deputy Chief of General Staff General Ma Xiaotian. The two sides also discussed defense exchanges for 2012 and agreed to “gradually enhance” the range and scope of their interaction, according to Indian defense ministry officials.
The Indian Army has asked the defense ministry to upgrade about a dozen airfields and advanced landing grounds (ALGs) in Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh with night landing facilities to improve the transportation of supplies and troops to the sensitive borders areas with China and Pakistan.
The proposed mechanism would comprise diplomats from the external affairs ministry and military personnel, including representatives of paramilitary and intelligence agencies.
Lieutenant General KT Parnaik is on two-day visit to the strategically crucial Ladakh region, where India shares its borders with China, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the AGPL at the Siachen glacier.
Rashtriya Rifles’ Delta Force commander Major General Gurmeet Singh, responsible for anti-insurgency operations in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban areas of Jammu and Kashmir, will head the eight-member delegation that will tour Beijing and Urumqi in Xinjiang province in western China.
The proposal is currently being vetted by the Ministry of Defense and if cleared, it would take at least four years to construct the requisite infrastructure at Nyoma, which is envisaged to allow fighter operations.
StratPost’s Saurabh Joshi tries to analyze the fortnight-long controversy over intrusions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army across the Line of Actual Control into India and the larger environment between the two countries from which this flare-up has arisen.
