India-China joint drills from Nov. 4
Despite the controversy generated over frequent Chinese transgressions into Indian territory in Ladakh and Arunachal, India and China have resolved to conduct the third edition of their joint military exercises in Chengdu in China from November 4 to 14.
The joint exercises will be held after a gap of five years. The first one was in 2007 at Kunming in China, while the second was in Belgaum, Karnataka, in 2008. After that, several controversies erupted that strained military ties between the two nations. The 10-day exercises in November will have around 140 participants from either side.
A nine-member delegation from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army held talks with the Indian Army on August 21-22 to finalise the dates, showing that both are ready to move ahead to strengthen military ties despite some irritants.
The dates were finalised amid a controversy when it emerged that PLA troops had transgressed over 20 km into Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh’s Chaglagam area on August 11 and stayed for four days before retur-ning. India maintains Chinese transgressions occur as both have different perceptions of the LAC demarcation, and that both armies patrol upto their perception of the LAC.
Defence minister A.K. Antony told Parliament that a draft of a Border Defence Cooperation Agr-eement had been received from China, to “formalise mechanisms and procedures to enhance mutual trust and confidence between the border troops of India and China”.
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