The People's Liberation Army (PLA) delegation, which arrived in West Bengal two days ago, reached Kolkata on Thursday and met top officers of the Eastern Command.
The ten-member team, led by PLA's Western Theatre's Deputy Commander Lt Gen Liu Xiaowu, was taken to Eastern Command's headquarters in Fort William where the closed-door meeting took place.
General officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command, Lt Gen. Abhay Krishna, was not present at the meeting. Instead, Lt Gen Sunil Srivastava, chief-of-staff, Eastern Command, met the delegation and held talks with them.
The Army and defence ministry remained tight-lipped about the agenda of discussion and what transpired between PLA and the Indian Army officials. However, defence ministry has accepted that issues related to Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Command areas in Arunachal Pradesh were discussed.
"The visit is a positive step towards enhancing the bilateral defence cooperation mechanism between the two countries, which would help in maintaining peace and stability along the LAC," said a defence ministry communique.
Sources in the Eastern Command told THE WEEK that across Arunachal Pradesh, the PLA is engaged in non-military actions. "Our seniors have categorically told them that this must stop in order to regain the confidence building measure,” sources said.
The both sides have verbally agreed to inform each other regarding any developmental work across the LAC as the geographical situation in Arunachal Pradesh often requires some kind of work on both sides of the LAC.
However, Army sources refused to disclose the topics that were discussed in Sukna where the delegation met 33 Corps of the Indian Army, engaged during Doklam crisis. While the official statement of defence ministry talked about LAC in Arunachal Pradesh, it remained silent on the contentious Doklam issue for which the delegation was taken to north Bengal and had discussions for two days.
A source in defence ministry said general officer commanding-in-chief of the Eastern Command did not like to hold the meeting as the delegation was led by the deputy commander of the Western Theatre of PLA. "So the delegation was engaged with the deputy commander (chief-of-staff) in our Eastern Command," said an official.