Pranab defends Joint Military Exercise with China

Bangalore, Dec 27: Strongly defending the first-ever Indo-China joint anti-terrorism military exercise "Hand-in-Hand 2007", External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today described it as a part of India's 'security strategy'. Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of the 80th conference of the Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahithya Sammelan, he said it was a practice and the policy of the Indian Government to interact and organise joint exercises with various countries.

"The joint military exercise is also to demonstrate that India and China are working together on various bilateral issues," he added. Mr Mukherjee said that India had so far held such joint military exercises with Russia, United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, France, Malaysia, Thailand apart from China. "It is part of our overall security strategy", he added.

The latest joint military exercise with China, was the outcome of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between defence ministries of China and India on May 29 2006, for exchange and cooperation in the field of Defence.

UNI