Mukherjee to visit BACCC in China

Kolkata, May 24 (UNI) Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will visit Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Centre(BACCC), the nerve centre of China's space and military satellite programmes, during his five-day trip to the country.

In what is described as 'historic' by the Government, Mr Mukherjee will be visiting China from May 28 to June one following his trip to Japan.

A Defence release today said Mr Mukherjee's unanounced visit to BACCC, better known for China's space missions, would come just weeks after Parliament was told that the Government had not taken a decision on an aerospace Command for the Indian Air Force.

The Government had conveyed to the IAF that setting up of such a command would be too expensive despite the latter's insistence that expansion to aerospace was logical and imperative for evolution of strategtic capability.

In terms of military utilisation of space, Beijing with its series of military satellites and a host of other programmes, is considered to be far ahead of New Delhi which all three services had conveyed to the Defence Ministry at different points of time.

The South Block, on its part, indicated that inter services views on the issue needed to be concurrent before the Government could commit to something so ambitious.

Mr Mukherjee's visit to China included signing of a memorandum to institutionalise exercises and training exchanges. He is likelty to visit the Lanzhou Military Region, a sector guarding the country's North-Western and Western borders including those with Mongolia and Pakistan.

During his stay in Japan from May 25 to 28, Mr.Mukherjee will welcome participation by Japanese industry in India's defence modernisation programme. He will lead a team of senior officials of the Defence and External Affairs Ministry, the Defence Research and Development Organisation(DRDO) and the armed forces.

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