China Tibet general in Calcutta


New Delhi, Dec. 8: China’s army commander for Tibet is being hosted by the Indian Army in its Eastern Command in Fort William, Calcutta, this week in a confidence-building measure that both sides hope will keep channels of communication open on border disputes.

Lieutenant General Shu Yu Tai, chief of the Peoples’ Liberation Army’s Tibet Military Region Command, has come three months after India’s eastern army commander, Lieutenant General V.K. Singh, visited Tibet and was also taken to Lhasa at the head of an Indian military delegation.

General Shu will also visit the headquarters of the 33 Corps in Sukna, north Bengal. Troops of the 33 Corps are deployed at the border with China in Sikkim.

The general was in Kathmandu just before reaching Calcutta. He leaves December 11.

“This is a goodwill visit. Our generals have also been hosted by the PLA in Tibet,” an army headquarters source said in New Delhi.

On the week-long visit to Tibet, Lt Gen V.K. Singh was accompanied by the commander of the Tezpur-headquartered 4 Corps that is dual-tasked on the China border in Arunachal and also for counter-insurgency in Assam. Gen Singh’s area of responsibility covers the entire front with China from Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh, including Bhutan.

Gen Shu’s visit to India coincides with the tour by another delegation of military officers from China’s National Defence University. Last week, the deputy chief of the PLA, General Gezen-feng, visited Delhi and met the top brass of the defence establishment.

An India-China army drill that was begun in 2007 and was said to be an annual event is not taking place this year.