By IANS
New Delhi : Rejecting Pakistan’s protests against a joint India-Britain war game underway in the icy heights of Jammu and Kashmir, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Wednesday that Islamabad should not view the exercise as a provocation.
“It is not a provocative act. In fact, we are attempting to improve our relations (with Pakistan) but there are problems,” the minister told reporters on the sidelines of a function at which he released a coffee table magazine on the Indian Army.
“There is no question of provoking Pakistan. We conduct such exercises with many nations. We are even going to conduct an exercise with China,” Antony stated.
Pakistan summoned British and Indian envoys to the foreign ministry Sep 24 and lodged a protest over the joint military exercise and their plans to hold similar exercises along the India-Pakistan border.
“Pakistan feels that this is illegitimate activity because Jammu and Kashmir is internationally recognised disputed territory and more than anybody else, Britain should be aware of it,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told the weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
“Pakistan made a demarche both with Britain and India last week and expressed its concern over the exercises plan,” she added.
Elite soldiers of India’s Parachute Regiment and the British Royal Marines are engaged in the war game on the Siachen glacier.
India and Pakistan had fought a bitter two-decade long conflict on the Siachen glacier, where the heights rise to 22,000 feet and the winter temperatures plunge to minus 50 degrees Celsius.
The guns have been silent since a truce was declared in 2003 and the two countries are now attempting to resolve the dispute over the glacier through their composite dialogue process.
Antony last week rejected Pakistani protests over a civilian-military trekking expedition to the Siachen glacier, saying 15 such teams have visited the area in the past one year.
“The whole of Jammu and Kashmir is Indian territory. What is the problem (in sending trekking expeditions to Siachen)?” he contended Sep 19.
“In the last one year, more than 15 teams have gone to Siachen. There has been no opposition to this. So why this time?” Antony asked.
“In July, there have been teams with members from the US, France and Australia,” he added.