NEW DELHI: India and China are all set to discuss further steps to strengthen bilateral confidence-building measures (CBMs) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as well as the long-pending hotline between their top commanders and resumption of their annual bilateral “Hand-in-Hand” combat exercise, a year after they all got derailed due to the Doklam troop confrontation between the two nations.“Maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas is indicative of the sensitivity and maturity with which India and China handle their differences, not allowing them to become disputes,” said PM Narendra Modi , after visiting Chinese defence minister General Wei Fenghe called on him on Tuesday.Terming India-China relations as “a factor of stability in the world”, Modi appreciated the “increased momentum” of high-level contacts between two countries in all arenas, including defence and military exchanges.Gen Wei, who is heading a 24-member team, will hold a “restricted meeting” and delegation-level talks with his counterpart Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. “The hotline between the two central military headquarters, akin to the one between the Indian and Pakistani DGMOs, the annual Army exercise and more effective implementation of CBMs on the ground to prevent troop face-offs along the LAC will all be on the agenda,” said an official.Both countries have billed the talks as an important follow-up to the informal summit between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April, which led to “strategic guidance” to their militaries to manage and defuse troop confrontations during patrolling in accordance with existing mechanisms.There has already been a reduction in the heightened border tensions along the 4,057-km LAC, which was witnessed during and after the 73-day Doklam standoff near the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction, as was earlier reported by TOI.The Chinese delegation, which began a four-day visit to India on Tuesday, includes Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chief of joint staff Air Marshal Dingqiu Chang, Western Theatre Command vice-commander Lt-General Guiqing Rong, and four Major-Generals, Changming Hu (chief of the CMC’s Office of International Military Cooperation), Haiyang Li (Southern Xijiang Military District commander), Jun Li (director of CMC’s Secretary Bureau) and Dewang Kuang ( Tibet Military Command vice-chief of staff), among others.Though the tempers have cooled down since Doklam, which saw the two armies move additional infantry battalions, tanks, artillery and missile units forward, the rival troops still continue to aggressively patrol to lay claim to disputed areas along the unresolved LAC, which stretches from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh.As was earlier reported by TOI, some People’s Liberation Army troops had intruded around 300-400 metres inside the Demchok sector of eastern Ladakh and pitched five tents there in one such incident last month.The number of transgressions by Chinese troops along the LAC has crossed 170 this year. If 273 transgressions were recorded in 2016, the number touched 426 last year in wake of the troop face-off in the Bhutanese territory of Doklam.The eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation had begun in June last year after Indian troops had physically blocked the attempt by Chinese soldiers to extend the existing motorable road there southwards towards the Jampheri Ridge in south Doklam. Though the two armies had disengaged from the face-off site on August 28 after hectic diplomatic parleys, the fallout has been that the PLA has constructed military infrastructure and helipads as well as permanently stationed around 600-700 troops in north Doklam.