India, China agree to strengthen military ties

Beijing, Jan 14 (IANS) Top defence officials from China and India met here in the capital Monday and held talks on strengthening military ties.

Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, met India’s Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, Xinhua reported.

Xu said China and India, being the biggest developing countries in the world, are important neighbours for each other.

He said the two countries have extensive common interests and were developing friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation, in line with the aspirations of the people in both nations.

The Chinese official said he believes that the two countries have enough wisdom and ability to handle their relationship and are able to pave a healthy and stable development path for it.

Xu said China attaches great importance in developing military ties with India.

Beijing hopes to increase mutual strategic trust, enhance friendly communication and deepen pragmatic cooperation to make a positive contribution to the world and regional peace and stability, he said.

Sharma said India attaches great importance to developing its relationship with China and that he was confident military relations between the two countries would progress in the future.

IANS 2013-01-14 20:28:02