Indian, Chinese troops share dance year after standoff
Indian and Chinese soldiers looked to have hit it off in their first joint exercises since a dangerous standoff last year, with videos released by the Indian military showing them dancing and playing football.
Troops from both sides came eyeball-to-eyeball in the disputed Doklam plateau in the Himalayas in June 2017 when Chinese soldiers started building a road and India sent its forces to halt the process.
The face-off between the nuclear-armed Asian nations, who fought a war in 1962 and in recent decades have been jostling for influence in the Indian Ocean, lasted two months until both sides pulled back.
India and China put their annual joint military drills on ice last year because of the Doklam standoff, but they resumed on 11 December in southwest China for exercises called ‘Hand in Hand’ and set to last until December 23.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have moved to patch up ties between the world’s two most populous nations, home to around 40 percent of the planet’s people.
This is despite the United States, alarmed at China’s growing military, economic and diplomatic assertiveness in the South China Sea and beyond, putting new emphasis on US military ties to New Delhi.
More from Defence Notes
-
![Eurosatory 2026: New public security needs drive personal protection equipment modernisation]()
Eurosatory 2026: New public security needs drive personal protection equipment modernisation
European law enforcement and public security agencies are entering a new cycle of investment in personal protection equipment (PPE), driven by evolving threat profiles, officer welfare requirements and advances in materials technology.
-
![Eurosatory 2026: Milrem Robotics puts forward multi-layered defence concept for NATO’s eastern flank]()
Eurosatory 2026: Milrem Robotics puts forward multi-layered defence concept for NATO’s eastern flank
Autonomous systems developer Milrem has evolved a model for an interoperable robotised approach to the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative (EFDI), showing how uncrewed systems could provide a multi-layered defence architecture in the air and on land along NATO’s eastern borders.
-
![Eurosatory 2026 to highlight changing defence and security priorities]()
Eurosatory 2026 to highlight changing defence and security priorities
Eurosatory 2026 will reflect a defence and security sector shaped by conflict, rising government spending, uncrewed systems, multidomain networks and growing demand for sovereign capabilities.
-
![Delays, departures and drama cloud UK defence programmes ahead of absent DIP]()
Delays, departures and drama cloud UK defence programmes ahead of absent DIP
The UK defence secretary’s departure suggests that the long-delayed Defence Investment Plan is unlikely to meet the funding demands of the armed forces, with consequences for procurement and the UK’s standing at a NATO summit weeks away.
