The Indian army signed a memorandum of understanding with Assam's Tezpur University on Wednesday to provide training in the Chinese language to soldiers.

The move, army sources said, is a part of their plan to improve the in-house expertise in Mandarin and provide an option to soldiers to engage with their Chinese counterparts.

“With improved Chinese language skills, the army personnel will be better empowered to convey their points in a more cogent manner,” said a source.

The MoU was signed by officials of the IV Corps. Also called Gajraj Corps, it is a military field formation of the army based in Tezpur and covers the states of Assam and western parts of Arunachal Pradesh.

The varsity registrar signed the agreement in the presence of S.N. Singh, the vice-chancellor of the central university set up in 1994.

“As per the agreement, the army personnel will be taught the Chinese language for a period of 16 weeks. It will help in better exchange of viewpoints and understanding of the Chinese PLA’s version of their activities during various interactions such as commander level talks, flag meetings joint exercises and border personnel meetings,” the army said in a statement.

Over the past few years, tensions along the India-China border — the countries share around 3,400km of the border, covering Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh in India.

“In recent times, considering the standoffs and skirmishes along the border, the army has intensified its efforts to provide Chinese language training to its personnel,” said a retired army officer.

Last July, the army issued a notification that it would recruit Mandarin language experts in the Territorial Army.

“The army has also signed similar MoUs with some other universities in the country, including Visva-Bharati in Santiniketan, to hone the language skills of the defence forces,” said a source.