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India, China joint naval exercises soon

By Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI JUNE 27 . India and China will step up military ties with the first-ever joint naval exercises planned for later this month, senior naval officers said here today. The two sides have been encouraging mutual visits by high-ranking military officials and training of Indian military officers in Chinese military institutes.

The joint exercises will be in the form of search and rescue exercises for three days on the high seas off the eastern coast. The date and venue of the exercises were being worked out by officials of the two countries, the Vice-Chief of Naval Staff, John D'Silva, said.

The Indian side had initially planned joint anti-piracy exercises in the theft-prone Malacca Straits where it had conducted anti-piracy patrols on behalf of the U.S. led `alliance against terrorism'. However, China drew attention to certain operational difficulties, the most important being that its Coast Guard performs these functions. It was therefore decided to make a beginning, with search and rescue exercises between the two navies.

The idea was first discussed intensively at the April meeting between the Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Jiang Zemin, in Shanghai. Both sides decided to work on improving bilateral military ties through greater interaction between officers and more cooperation on the high seas. Further impetus was provided by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee's China visit.

Military-level interaction along with easing of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation on the Sino-Indian border has been taking place gradually since the early nineties. Besides delegation level visits of military officials and India's mid-level officers undergoing courses in Chinese institutions, several concurrent steps have led to thawing of ties, the latest being the opening of border trade through Sikkim. The progress in Sino-Indian security related ties has been marked by port calls by naval vessels, exchange of maps of the middle sector on the Line of Actual Control and activation of Indo-China dialogue on mechanism to counter terrorism.

Though the annual report of the Defence Ministry was delayed by a couple of months to revise India's security related perceptions of China, it noted that the fact that "every major Indian city is within the reach of Chinese missiles cannot be ignored".

Moreover, the asymmetry in terms of nuclear forces is pronouncedly in favour of China and may get accentuated as it responds to counter the U.S. missile defence programme. It also took note of China's close defence ties with Pakistan which "takes a further edge in view of the latter's known belligerence and hostility to India and its nuclear tests".

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