India warms up to joint military drill with China

BANGALORE: India would explore the possibility of holding a joint military exercise with China, chief of Army staff, General JJ Singh said on Friday.

“There is no problem and in fact, we would be happy to do any joint exercise with them (Chinese). We will explore the possibilities,” Gen Singh told reporters here. He said “right now”, both India and China were “at the stage of getting to know each other”. During Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit, the two sides had agreed on “instilling mutual trust and confidence through defence cooperation”. The two countries would explore the possibility of joint training, apart from the joint adventure activities.

Noting that joint exercises had been conducted with the US, Russia, Mongolia, Singapore and Britain, the Army chief wondered “there is no reason why we cannot have a joint exercise with China”.

“Absolute confidence building measures are being taken and there is peace and tranquillity on the borders. We have no cause for friction and it will be a good thing if we can continue to enhance the military-to-military cooperation which will engender greater trust,” he added. Gen Singh said the leadership of India and China had shown the path as to “how we can resolve the problems” in a “peaceful manner”.