India-China army exercise in jeopardy

The ongoing face-off in Dokalam between India and China has cast a shadow on the 2017 edition of the Sino-Indian Hand-in-Hand army exercise, scheduled to be held later in the year in China.

The first planning meeting for the annual exercise has not been held so far. When queried by the Indian officials about the meeting, the Chinese officials didn’t respond, sources said.

As per the practice followed so far, the two countries first hold an initial planning meeting around June-July in the host nation (China in 2017). The initial parleys are followed by a final planning meeting in the visiting country (India).

The fact that the initial planning meeting has not been held so far has cast aspersions on the conduct of the Hand-in-Hand exercise this year.

Officials from the defence ministry and the Indian Army refused to answer queries. The 2016 edition was held in Pune while the 2015 drill took place in Kunming, the capital of south western China’s Yunnan province.

The exercise began in 2007 as a confidence building measure. But the annual drill was suspended for four years after the first two editions in Kunming (2007) and Belagavi (2008), because of a raging diplomatic row on multiple visa issues, compounded by border frictions.