Army team to visit China to finalise military exercise schedule

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Defence Minister A K Antony's visit to China next month, an Army delegation would be there this month-end to finalise the dates of bilateral military exercises expected to be held later this year after a gap of over four years.

An Army delegation under a Brigadier from the Military Operations Branch will visit China in the last week of April to finalise the date for the third edition of the Hand-to-Hand exercise between the two sides, sources said.

The exercise is expected to be held in September-October time frame this year, they said.

India and China had last held the last edition of the exercise in December 2008 in Belgaum in Karnataka while the first edition was held in 2007 in Kunming province of China.

The two sides had decided to resume their military exercises during the visit of former Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie to India last September.

During the talks, Antony had also accepted the invitation to visit China. The visit is likely to see the two sides further discuss the proposal for a Border Defence Cooperation Agreement mooted by the Chinese side during the visit its Deputy Chief of General Staff last month.

The border defence cooperation agreement proposes to avoid any misunderstanding or flare up along the boundary.

After the visit to China, Antony is also scheduled to visit Australia.

The scheduled visit to Australia was postponed in February this year.