India and China are expected to hold Corps Commander-level talks in the coming days amid reports of tension in the Taksing area of Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district, as both sides continue efforts to manage unresolved issues along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Lt General Girish Kalia, commander of the Indian Army’s III Corps, also known as the Spear Corps, is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart and other officers shortly. The formation is headquartered at Rangapahar near Dimapur in Nagaland and is responsible for operations in Nagaland, Manipur and the central and eastern sectors of Arunachal Pradesh along the LAC.
The planned military engagement follows multiple rounds of discussions between local commanders in recent weeks aimed at resolving issues between the two sides.
Earlier this week, Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth visited the Spear Corps to review the operational readiness of its formations and ongoing border development initiatives. The Army said he was briefed on capability development and measures being taken to further strengthen combat capability.
The planned meeting also comes days after India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who serve as special representatives for the boundary talks, met in Beijing on August 25.
A day after their meeting, India and China announced that they had agreed to advance discussions towards “an early and substantial harvest” on boundary delimitation and border management. The two sides also agreed to establish two new military hotlines in the eastern and middle sectors, create two additional meeting points for military commander-level discussions and hold a meeting on trans-border rivers in September.
The new military hotlines in the eastern and middle sectors are likely to be established at Army command headquarters in Lucknow and Kolkata. The move would provide additional channels for communication between senior military authorities as New Delhi and Beijing seek to strengthen mechanisms for managing tensions along the disputed frontier.
A new Border Personnel Meeting point is also expected to be established at Joshimath in Uttarakhand for talks between senior military commanders. Existing meeting points include Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and Chushul in Ladakh.
The latest diplomatic and military contacts come as India and China attempt to rebuild bilateral relations that deteriorated sharply following the military standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh in 2020.
The border dispute has remained a central challenge in relations between the two countries, making communication between military commanders particularly important as both sides seek to prevent local tensions from escalating.
The timing of the renewed engagement also coincides with preparations for the BRICS summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to attend the summit, although his participation has been the subject of continued attention.
Xi’s possible visit would come at a significant moment in India-China relations. His last visit to India was in October 2019, when he travelled to Mamallapuram near Chennai for the second informal bilateral summit between the two countries’ leaders.
The planned Corps Commander-level talks, together with the new communication mechanisms agreed upon by New Delhi and Beijing, point to continued efforts to maintain direct channels between the two militaries while broader negotiations over the boundary remain unresolved.
