Army's Northern Command chief to visit China next month

Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda, General Officer Commanding in Chief (GOC-in-C) Northern Command, will visit China next month -- the first Indian army commander to do so.

Colonel S.D. Goswami, spokesman of the Indian Army's Udhampur-based Northern Command told IANS here on Monday: "GOC-n-C Northern Command Lieutenant General D.S. Hooda will be visiting China in the middle of next month.

"He will be the first Indian army commander ever to visit China."

The top Indian army General's visit to China assumes significance because China has a vast border with India in Jammu and Kashmir called the line of actual control (LAC). There have been incursions by the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) into the Indian side of the LAC.

China has often said that the LAC is not properly demarcated between the two countries.

Gen Hooda heads the Northern Command that maintains India's defences on the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the LAC with China.