The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) training base is located at the foot of the Emeishan Mountain in southwest China. So it was wet, foggy and understandably cold the evening that Indian and Chinese soldiers completed the nine-day anti-terrorist training drill ‘Hand-in-Hand’ last week.
But no one was complaining being outdoors. Bonfires, bhangra and bonhomie between the soldiers took care of the chill as they got together for a night of songs, dance and skits. It was the evening before the Indian contingent – from the 16 Sikh Light Infantry – was heading back to Guwahati.
One Chinese soldier sang what was, well, his take on Raj Kapoor’s “Awara Hoon” — which is still fondly remembered in China — while an Indian soldier crooned a Chinese love song much to the amusement of the Chinese personnel.
Spirits were high though what was served at the open air gathering was restricted to soft drinks and fruits.
For many of the Indian soldiers and officers, it was their first trip abroad with the contingent.
Earlier in the day, the soldiers had completed the exercise where six platoons — three from each side — from the two massive militaries intermingled and practiced anti-terrorism modules.
An Indian officer pointed out that for more than a week, the Indian and Chinese soldiers cooked, ate and stayed together.
The Indian contingent had come with their own provisions. “We were cooking our own food,” said a jawan, adding that the Chinese were eager to taste Indian food.
What was apparently also popular among the Chinese soldiers was a brand of Indian rum well-known internationally.
This was only the third exercise between the two militaries and the first time that Sikh Light Infantry soldiers were taking part.
On the other hand, several Chinese officers who were taking part in last week’s exercise had also taken part in at least one of the earlier two exchanges between the two militaries.
It was strange, to say the least, seeing soldiers from both countries mingle freely — a few translators at hand — with each other when just a few months ago some of their fellow soldiers were in an eyeball-to-eyeball situation in Ladakh.
The last day of the exercise was the culmination of the training course with Indian and Chinese soldiers jointly taking on a group of “terrorists” housed in well-fortified caves and tunnels.
Earlier in the morning, I’d asked two of the top generals from each side if this exercise would achieve anything or help prevent situations like the one in Ladakh earlier this year.
Both were positive about it and talked about closer military to military relations.
Officers agreed and added that it was good that the soldiers from both sides had an opportunity to understand each other’s mindsets.
“If a political decision is taken, we are bound by it. But who wants to fight actually,” said a Chinese officer while talking about the role of the militaries.
Though the place and time is yet to be decided for the next round of training exercise, it would certainly be held in India. It could be within the next six months, said an Indian officer, as was the trend for the first two exercises.
That is the plan. But if another military stand-off takes place somewhere along the Line of Actual Control between the two countries or China decides to issue stapled visas for an Indian from Arunachal Pradesh, not only bilateral, but also military relations will fall back into a circle of unease – if not an outright vicious one.
All the temporary bonhomie between the young soldiers of the two militaries will then seem like a part of an exercise in futility.