By IANS
New Delhi : The Indian and Chinese armies will conduct their first war games Dec 20-28, a defence spokesman said Tuesday.
“The exercise will begin on Dec 20 and conclude on 28th. It will be conducted in China’s Chengdu military region,” Wing Commander R.K. Das of the Indian Army’s Kolkata-based Eastern Command, told IANS on the telephone.
The exercise will see each side fielding some 100 officers and men.
“The exercise will feature a special anti-terrorism drill. We have considerable experience in handling insurgency and terrorism and the Chinese would like to learn from us,” Das added.
The dates for the joint drill were decided at a meeting in Kolkata Friday-Saturday between officers of the two armies, he said.
The exercise was to have been conducted in November but was delayed because the two countries could not agree on the dates.
A breakthrough was achieved at the annual defence dialogue in Beijing in mid-November when Indian and Chinese officials also decided that India would host a similar joint drill next year.
The annual defence dialogue is a component of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed during then Indian defence minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to China last year, during which he also toured a number of military establishments in the country.
The MoU was seen as a major step forward in improving India-China ties that had remained frosty since the two countries fought a bitter border war in 1962.
The thaw began in the mid-1980s and the two countries have made considerable progress since then with the two countries putting the border issue on the backburner as they move forward in the economic, political and cultural spheres.
The war games will bring the military sector within the ambit of the improving ties.