Update | India’s armed forces set up ‘think tank cells’ to study China

India’s armed forces, the world’s third largest active military, have set up “China cells” tasked to develop a better understanding of the country’s northeastern neighbour as a new round of border talks have failed to find a lasting solution to the two countries’ territorial dispute in the Himalayas.

The team has been put together by Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh, the armed forces’ highest ranking officer, the report said. The unnamed source emphasised that the move wasn’t aimed at meddling into India’s civilian foreign affairs policy and described the cells as the army’s “in-house think tanks”.

Cells are to be set up in three of the country’s six regional command headquarters. The team at the Kolkata-based Eastern Command will be headed by a one-star general, the report said. 

Last week, China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi and India’s National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon met in New Delhi for the 17th round of talks on finding a solution to the border dispute which led to a short war in 1962 and sparked a three-week-long stand-off last year.

China claims more than 90,000 square kilometres in the eastern Himalayas, while India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres of its territory on the Aksai Chin plateau in the west.