New Delhi: India and China are set to significantly expand their military communication architecture along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), with two new hotlines and two additional meeting points being established in the Eastern and Central sectors.
Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that the two new military hotlines will connect the headquarters of India’s Eastern Army Command and Central Army Command with their Chinese counterparts.At the same time, Joshimath in Uttarakhand and Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh have been identified as the Indian-side locations for two new Border Personnel Meeting (BPM) points where Corps Commander-level talks can be held, the sources said.
The decisions were among the outcomes of the recent meeting between National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who are the Special Representatives (SRs) of India and China for the boundary question.The joint statement issued after the talks said the two sides had agreed to establish “an additional two meeting points” for holding the General Level Mechanism (GLM)/Senior Highest Military Commander (SHMC) meetings, as well as “two additional channels of border military hotline in the Eastern and Middle Sectors”.The move is significant because it seeks to create a more structured military-to-military communication mechanism across the entire LAC, rather than relying predominantly on arrangements in the Western Sector, that is Eastern Ladakh. From one sector to three
