The agreement reached after the talks were held between Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Gen. Fan Changlong, Vice Chairman of Central Military Commission of People’s Republic of China, who is now on a visit to India.
Advertisement
Prime Minister Modi said that it is important to enhance strategic trust and maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas, in order to promote overall bilateral ties.
This is the highest-level Chinese defence delegation to visit India in recent years.
The two sides agreed to implement consensus reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to ensure peace and tranquility along the border.
Top military officials from India and China met in New Delhi on Monday during which the contentious border issue is believed to have been discussed, besides the South China Sea, among other pressing issues.
For his part, Parrikar said that both India and China are victims of terrorism and India hopes to stage common fight against global terrorism with China.
They welcomed the operationalisation of further border personnel assembly factors. This is in tune with the proposal to institutionalise the mechanism for regular face-to-face interactions between commanders-in-chief of the Indian Eastern Army Command and Chinese Chengdu Military Region as well as Northern Army Command and Lanzhou Military Region, which is yet to take concrete shape, as reported by TOI earlier.
India regards developing relations with China as a priority in its diplomacy as good relationship between the two countries has great importance for realizing the vision of the Asian Century, he said.
Gen. Fan prolonged an invite to Parrikar to go to China. The Defence Minister has accepted the invitation and the dates shall be determined via diplomatic channels.
Incidentally, the visit comes at a time when Army chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag is in Japan on an official visit.
Advertisement
While the ships of the three countries took part in the naval exercise, an Indian Army contingent was holding an exercise with their Chinese counterparts in the neighbouring country’s Kunming area.
