It may be recollected that in August 2010, China objected to the inclusion of the Indian Army's Northern Command Chief Lt Gen BS Jaswal in a delegation, saying the officer oversees Jammu and Kashmir which according to Beijing is a disputed area. China government had asked India to replace Lt Gen Jaswal from the official delegation.

Beijing had, however, allowed the current the Army Chief General VK Singh who was then the GOC-in-Chief and a Lt Gen, Eastern Command, to visit China in August 2009 for a similar high-level exchange. China, which claims Arunachal Pradesh as its own had not objected to General Singh's visit because as head of the Eastern Command, he had jurisdiction over the state.