India-China exercise set to begin

India and China are due to begin a joint military exercise, the first of its kind between the world's two largest armies.The exercise is taking place between 20 and 28 December in China's Chengdu military region.It will involve a company of troops each, just over 100 officers and men, from both sides.India and China fought a brief but bloody border war in October 1962 over a disputed Himalayan frontier.The situation eased after the two countries signed a treaty for peace and tranquillity in 1993, agreeing to reduce troop levels on the borders.Nearly 100 Indian soldiers have arrived in China for the exercise, according to reports.These troops have been picked up from forces fighting insurgencies in restive north-eastern India and Indian-administered Kashmir, reports said.Indian forces are carrying their personal weapons, light machine guns and mortars. The armoury - tanks, helicopter gunships and unmanned aerial vehicles - are being provided by the Chinese army.
'Intrusions'
"War games are aimed at building and promoting positive military relations, inter-operatability and to undertake joint operations in counter insurgency," Indian army spokesman Brig SK Chatterjee told the Press Trust of India news agency.Ties between the two countries remained tense after the brief war in 1962.During an Indian high altitude military exercise called Operation Chequerboard in 1987, the two armies nearly went to war again.In between, both sides patrolled the desolate frontier aggressively and skirmishes were not infrequent.India and China signed an agreement on defence cooperation in May 2006 during the visit of former Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee to China.Last year, China agreed to reopen the strategic Nathu La pass to border trade, thereby accepting Sikkim as a part of India.But in the last year China appeared to be uncomfortable with India's growing strategic ties with US, cemented through a series of joint exercises, including the huge five nation naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, this year.In recent months, Indian border forces reported more and more Chinese "intrusions" across the disputed border even as Beijing stepped up its rhetoric on the disputed frontier, reiterating its claims to the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.Analysts say visit of Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi to China last month has helped put the bilateral relations back on the right track, and China appears to be no longer objecting to the India-US nuclear deal that had initially upset it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7153179.stm

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