During Xi Jinping's visit to New Delhi in September 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the boundary question and urged his counterpart for a solution. Since Modi became Prime Minister in 2014 until the 2020 standoff, Modi and Xi met 18 times, including those on the sidelines of summits and five visits to China. However, in 2017, China and India got into a major standoff in Doklam that lasted 73 days. On 3 January 2018 Xi Jinping, as Chairman Central Military Commission, issued the first Training Mobilisation Order. This was the first time that military training instructions had been given directly by the Chairman Central Military Commission. Following this PLA forces have been mobilising training on the basis of the order. A retired PLA major general explains, "...improving combat readiness is now a strategic mission for the Chinese military [...] China can't copy the US' measure to improve combat capability through actual combat overseas since our national defence policy is defensive rather than offensive. Therefore, military training becomes extremely important for China." China has since increased its military presence in the Tibetan Plateau. China has also been increasing its footprint with India's neighbours – Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan; so from India having a monopoly in the region, China is now posing a direct challenge to New Delhi's influence in South Asia.