Excerpts from Joint Statement issued at the end of talks
with Chinese leaders by Defence Minister AK Antony in Beijing.
1. Ministers emphasized...enhancing mutual trust and
understanding between two militaries.
2. ...agreed on an early conclusion of negotiations for
the Border Defence Cooperation...
3. ...welcomed...counter-terrorism bilateral joint
exercise between their armies in China in 2013.
They also agreed on,
a. Senior military commanders...will exchange
visits...annual schedule.
b. Visits of border troop delegations...enhanced to
promote dialogue and strengthen trust and cooperation.
c. Border Personnel Meetings(BPM)...greater frequency and
additional locations.
d. Navies...increase ship visits, consider...joint
maritime search and rescue exercises and cooperate in counter-piracy
operations.
e. Air Forces...high level visits... expand their
functional exchanges...focus on...flight safety, aviation medicine and
training.
f. Military training institutions...exchanges at the
faculty and student levels.
g. ...greater awareness and understanding...young
officers...visits and exchanges...annually.
h. ...Antony invited his Chinese counterpart, Gen Chang
Wanquan, to visit India in 2014...Chinese Defence Minister accepted the
invitation.
Two words which find frequent mention in the statement
are - visit and talk. Lot more visits and lot more talks. Will this lead to
something? I am not sure. If we consider the fate of long running, never ending
border negotiations as an indicator, then new visit and talk system will also
end up as futile as the earlier ones were (except in creating more airline
bills). Eventually the problem will effectively transfer to the shoulder of
future generations.
Sajeev
References
1. Ministry of Defence, GOI.
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