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| Powers join for first war games | | IAF aircraft, carrying troops from the 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, was the first Indian military flight ever to land in Chinese territory | | Kunming | Dec 21
THE first military exercises between India and China began here after an Indian Air Force aircraft landed in the Chinese province of Yunnan, signaling a major thaw in relations between the two countries with the world's largest armies.
The IAF aircraft, carrying troops from the 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, was the first Indian military flight ever to land in Chinese territory. Its arrival was greeted with cries of "Hindi-Chini bhai bhai" (India and China are brothers, in Hindi) by gathered ranks of the People's Liberation Army. Troops of India and China on Friday kick-started their first-ever joint military exercise with focus on anti-terrorism drill in southwest China, taking the ties between the world's two largest armies to a new high. The hoisting of national flags of both the countries to the national anthems played by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) band and march past marked the opening ceremony of the five-day drill began at the Kunming Military Academy in Yunnan province in an air of expectancy from both sides. The exercise, titled "Hand-in-Hand 2007" reflecting warmer military ties, got off to the start with Chinese soldiers demonstrating skills in "Hard Qigong" martial arts, including self-defence actions. The two countries, who went to war in 1962, will practise urban counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism drills, codenamed Hand in Hand 2007, over the next five days and are planning similar exercises in India next year. "The purpose is just to make friendly our two armies and to train against urban extremism," Indian army spokesman Virendra Singh told The Times of London. While military experts played down the significance of the exercise, saying it was too short and involved too few soldiers, there's no doubting the symbolic importance of the event. Relations between New Delhi and Beijing deteriorated in 1959 after India gave refuge to Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, when he was forced to flee the country. Three years later, China defeated India in a war over a disputed Himalayan border and China's military aid to Pakistan.
The exercises are taking place shortly before a visit to Beijing by the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and are seen as a mutual manifestation of goodwill between the world's two emerging economic giants.
Chinese President Hu Jintao visited New Delhi last year and long-held suspicions between the two nations have been replaced by a degree of warmth not seen for decades.
Trade is growing rapidly, having risen from $3 billion to $13billion in just three years. Dr Singh, when he goes to Beijing early next month, will take with him a raft of proposals for further expanded trade and other co-operation.
Despite the amity, difficulties remain, not least over Chinese occupation of what India says are parts of its territory and China's claims to areas in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Chinese soldiers taking part in the war games belong to an anti-terrorism unit active in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, where ethnic Uighurs are fighting for an Islamic homeland. |
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