INDIA,CHINA TO RESUME JOINT MILITARY EXERCISES
Sept 4, 2012 (AFP) - Joint military exercises between India and China will be resumed after a four-year gap, Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony announced Tuesday after talks in New Delhi with his Beijing counterpart.
The two emerging Asian nations have had an often fractious relationship over their shared border, and they halted joint military exercises after 2008 due to a series of diplomatic spats including those over visa issues.
"We have decided that (to restart military exercises)," Antony told reporters following talks with General Liang Guanglie, the first Chinese defence minister to visit Delhi in eight years.
"We covered a lot about the situation in the South Asia, Asia-Pacific region," Antony said. "We had a very frank and heart-to-heart discussion on all the issues... including in the border areas."
The disputed border between India and China has been the subject of 14 rounds of fruitless talks since 1962, when the two nations fought a brief, bloody war over the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
China's buildup of military infrastructure along the frontier has become a major source of concern for India, which increasingly sees Beijing as a longer-term threat to its security than traditional rival Pakistan.
"We have reached a consensus on high-level visits and exchange of personnel, maritime security... and cooperation between the two navies," Liang said after Tuesday's talks.