India, China air forces likely to set up direct link | India News

NEW DELHI: India and China are likely to establish “direct contact” between their air forces to prevent any inadvertent escalation amid the ongoing “heightened” activity by fighter jets and drones along the unresolved Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The direct contact mechanism could be through a separate hotline between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the People’s Liberation Army-Air Force (PLAAF) or by using the existing hotline between the two armies in the eastern Ladakh region, defence establishment sources said on Tuesday.
The “proposal” was discussed during the special military dialogue between the two countries at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point last week, during which India raised the recent airspace violations and breach of confidence-building measures (CBMs) by the Chinese air force in eastern Ladakh.

Sr IAF officer was present at latest talks with China
India and China have discussed the “proposal for direct contact” between two air forces during the special military talks. “The proposal was discussed at the meeting, which was headed by a Major General but also attended by an Air Commodore of the IAF for the first time, because it is important to talk in case of confusion over an incident… Things can otherwise quickly spiral out of control,” a source said.
“The proposal is at an initial stage with the mechanism, structure and level yet to be decided,” he said. The talks on August 2 were held against the backdrop of the “provocative behaviour” by Chinese fighters flying close to the LAC since mid-June, often violating the 10-km no-fly zone CBM, as was earlier reported by TOI.
There have been at least two “confirmed” incidents of Chinese fighters even flying over the troop stand-off sites in eastern Ladakh, which led the IAF to scramble its own fighters and activate other air defence measures.
India and China have held 16 rounds of the top-level corps commander talks, with the last being on July 17, without any concrete progress on disengagement and de-escalation at Patrolling Point-15, Demchok and the largest face-off at the strategically-located Depsang Bulge area in over two-year-long military confrontation in eastern Ladakh.
The Indian and Chinese armies have six hotlines – two each in eastern Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim – between their ground commanders. The sixth one was set up between Kongra La in north Sikkim and Khamba Dzong in the Tibetan Autonomous Region in August last year.
China, however, has been dragging its feet over establishing a top-level hotline like the DGMO one between India and Pakistan. The hotline between the two Army headquarters was first proposed in the bilateral Border Defence Cooperation Agreement (BDCA) signed in 2013 and then agreed to during PM Narendra Modi’s visit to China in 2015, as was earlier reported by TOI.