India and China are all set to resume joint military exercise after a gap of four years when an Indian Army team visits its eastern neighbour later this month to finalise the schedule of the exercise to be held in China in September.
The army team’s visit will also prepare the ground work for more military to military interaction when Defence Minister AK Antony will visit China next month. He will discuss this issue which forms part of confidence building measure between the two countries, officials said on Sunday.
The exercises were put on hold when India protested against China issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir and denied a visa to then Northern Command chief lt General BK Jaswal in 2010 while questioning the status of Kashmir. The first annual exercise was held in 2008 in China followed by a similar anti-terrorist drill in India the next year.
The two countries had decided to resume exercises during the visit of then Chinese Defence Minister liang Guanglie to India last September. During the talks, Antony had also accepted the invitation to visit China.
Confidence building measures are part of the overall architecture to improve relations between the two countries which have a disputed border for the last 50 years and fought a war in 1962.
The border often termed as line of Actual Control(lAC) has not seen any conflagration in the last two and half decades and peace and tranquility has prevailed due to diplomatic measures. Both the countries have initiated a political process to resolve the vexed boundary issue by appointing Special Representatives and they have held 15 rounds so far in the last one decade.