India-China military officials hold Annual Defence Dialogue

BEIJING: Top defence officials of India and China today began two-day fifth Annual Defence Dialogue here to discuss a host of issues concerning the bilateral military ties including resumption of joint exercises this year.

The talks were being held between the tri-service Indian delegation headed by Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and Deputy Chief of Staff of People's Liberation Army (PLA) Lt Gen Qi Jianghuo, according to Indian officials here.

The two sides are expected to work out a road map to resume joint military exercises this year.

The joint exercises aimed improving the ties between the two militaries were held at Kunming (China) in 2007 and Belgaum in 2008 and later stopped after China began issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir since 2009.

Under this policy, China declined visa to Lt Gen B S Jaswal on the ground that he was commanding forces in the "disputed and sensitive" region of Jammu and Kashmir, which lead to India halting its military ties with China.

Beijing subsequently rolled back the policy paving the way for resumption of military ties.

Also, the two countries established consultation and coordination mechanism to deal with border incidents arising out of the patrolling of the disputed areas and began consultations on maritime security issues as their navies are currently involved in countering pirate attacks in Gulf of Aden.