Even as reports of incidents of incursions by Chinese troops into the Indian Territory continue to come in at regular intervals, India and China have decided to hold military exercises from November 4 in Chengdu region in China after a gap of nearly five years.
The decision to hold the 'Hand-in-Hand' series of exercises from November 4-14 was taken in a meeting between Indian and Chinese military officials here, well placed sources in the government said. During the war games, the two sides will practice counter insurgency and counter terrorism manoeuvres under the UN mandate, the sources said.
The third edition of the exercise comes after five years of the drills held in Belgaum in December 2008. The first edition of the exercise was held in Kunming in China in 2007. After the denial of visa to the then Northern Army Commander Lt Gen B S Jaswal by China in 2010, New Delhi had frozen all bilateral defence exchanges with Beijing.
The two sides decided to resume the joint exercises in 2012 after the meeting between the then Chinese defence minister Gen Liang Guanglie and his Indian counterpart A K Antony here. Recently, India and China also decided to ramp up their military exchanges by having joint exercises between their navies and the air forces. The exchange of officers in training institutions is also planned to be enhanced by the two countries.
