Chinese military delegation to shortly visit India: Official

BEIJING: A Chinese military delegation will shortly visit India, as a major follow up to the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, a defence ministry spokesperson said here on Thursday.

The delegation of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be headed by Major General Liu Xiaowu, Deputy Commander of China's Western military region, Defence spokesman Colonel Wu Qian said. He said both sides were currently finalising the dates for the visit, adding that General Liu would also be visiting Pakistan. “During the visit, he will have meetings with military leaders of both the countries and relevant leaders concerning border defence and controls and as well as cooperation at the theatre level,” he said. The newly-formed Western Theatre Command of the PLA guards the 3,488-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India. About the impact of the Wuhan summit on military ties, Colonel Wu said China and India are neighbours set by nature.

He said the friendly cooperation between the countries can be traced back to the introduction of Buddhism to China and travel of famous Buddhist monk Xuanzang to India.

“The militaries of India and China are willing to implement the important agreement reached between the two leaders in the development bilateral relations,” he said. “We are willing foster strategic mutual trust with India and promote win win cooperation to manage differences and disputes of the borders,” he said. China had on June 1 announced the visit of its military delegation to India, the first since the 73-day military standoff at Dokalam last year, that caused major disruption in relations. Subsequently both sides made efforts to improve ties leading up to the Wuhan summit. LUCKNOW: UP Congress chief Raj Babbar on Thursday said in order to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, division of opposition votes must not take place in the state.

On speculation of Congress forming an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh, Babbar said: “Our party believes that for defeating the BJP, division of votes should not take place. We tried this in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur (bypolls).” “In Kairana, we never sought any cooperation despite the fact that we had 2.5 lakh votes. Our aim was to defeat the BJP. We moved a step backward and never took credit for it,” he added.

However, Babbar noted that the experiment had failed in the 2017 Assembly polls.

“In the 2017 UP Assembly polls it was an experiment with the aim of defeating the BJP. The experiment was not successful,” he said.

Babbar stressed that the final decision on the alliance will be taken by the party high command which will be acceptable to party workers in the state and across the country. Meanwhile, convenor of the communication department of the Congress Priyanka Chaturvedi accused UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath of attempting to stoke a controversy for refusing to wear a cap offered to him at the mausoleum of Saint Kabir Das in Maghar last evening.