China says INS Vikrant won't spark an arms race

BEIJING: China today slammed as "groundless" local media commentaries that claimed India's first indigenous aircraft carrier has sparked a regional arms race, saying they were aimed at "driving a wedge" between the two neighbours.

Local media has speculated that India has marched ahead of China with the launch of indigenously-built INS Vikrant.

China's Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun, however, slammed such comments saying that they were aimed at provoking tensions between China and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is groundless and shows a lack of goodwill to use weapons equipment as a pretext to drive a wedge between China and India," he said.

His remarks followed recent comments alleging India's aircraft carrier obviously targets China and ignites the fiercest arms race the world has ever seen in Asia, the report said.

"China and India are partners and close neighbours. Getting along well with each other and achieving co-development is in the fundamental interests of the two," Yang said.

He also said that Indian and Chinese military are due to hold joint military exercise in November this year to increase mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation while preserving regional peace and stability.

Experts from both sides have had two rounds of consultations on the date, assignment and scale of the forces to be involved in the training, he said.

"The two defence ministries are keeping in touch on details of the training," he said.

The exercises codenamed "Hand-in-Hand" are scheduled to be held from November 4 to 14 in the Chengdu Military Command area in China. Both sides were expected to press in about 150 troops. The drills are expected to focus on anti-terrorism exercises.