Home>News Center>China
       
 

China, India troops to train jointly as ties warm
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-26 20:08

NEW DELHI - The armies of India and China plan to hold unprecedented joint counter-terrorism and peacekeeping training programmes, the Indian army chief said on Thursday.

Chief of general staff of PLA Liang Guanglie[R] listens to a report at a NPC meeting in Beijing March 10, 2005. [newsphoto] 
General Joginder Jaswant Singh said the plans had been discussed with visiting Chinese chief of general staff, General Liang Guanglie, who began a six-day tour on Monday.

Military ties between the two Asian giants have vastly improved and their soldiers have gone on joint mountaineering expeditions, played volleyball matches, exchanged gifts and shared meals on the frontier, Singh said.

"The momentum given by the leaders of our two countries is being enhanced further by the two militaries," he told reporters, referring to the upswing in diplomatic ties between the world's two most populous countries.

"On the roadmap of military-to-military cooperation in the future (are) exercises where both countries could carry out together to counter terrorism or on U.N. missions," he said on the sidelines of a defence technology conference in New Delhi.

Indian army officers visited China to witness military exercises last year and Chinese officers were invited to see manoeuvres by the Indian army and air force this year, he said.

During Liang's talks in Delhi, the two sides had agreed that their navies would hold joint exercises off the Indian coast, the second such drill after the two fleets conducted manoeuvres off the Shanghai coast in 2003.

Ties between India and China were frosty for decades after the bitter war but since the late 1990s the rising Asian economic powers have gone about transforming it.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India last month and the two sides agreed on a roadmap to settle their longstanding border row.

Although senior envoys of the two sides have been holding talks to end the row, analysts say resolving the row over the 3,500-km (2,200-mile) Himalayan frontier has a long way to go.

Troops from the two countries still occasionally have stand-offs when they stray across the frontier.

But General Singh dismissed such incidents as "nothing abnormal" and said they were a result of the "difference in perception" between the two sides of where the frontier lay.

"The (military) confidence-building measures will result in reducing tension and will also result in (reducing the) number of people deployed along the borders," he said.



 
  Today's Top News     Top China News
 

China hails bird flu vaccine amid pandemic warning

 

   
 

China, Uzbekistan sign $600m oil agreement

 

   
 

Tsang resigns to run in Hong Kong by-election

 

   
 

EU sets deadline on resolving textile dispute

 

   
 

Shanghai targeting at property bubbles

 

   
 

Chinese shoppers outspend Japanese abroad

 

   
  Mekong River nations vow more cooperation on resources
   
  Croatian PM starts China visit
   
  New vaccines developed to stop bird flu
   
  Toyota to build 3rd plant in Tianjin - report
   
  Standard English for the 2008 Olympic Games
   
  Sichuan fire razes 200 hectares of virgin forest
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Croatian PM starts China visit
   
China-Japan ties soured by shrine visits
   
China, EU discuss strategic partnership
   
China and Japan seek to smooth relations
   
China marks 30th anniversary of Sino-EU diplomatic ties
   
Japan and China need to work together: Ambassador to Japan
   
Regular Sino-US dialogue agreed
  News Talk  
  It is time to prepare for Beijing - 2008  
Advertisement