JJ Returns from China Visit

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) Army Chief General JJ Singh returned here today after a weeklong visit to China aimed at mutual confidence building between the two neighbours who only recently began thawing the coolth in their relations.

Gen JJ Singh -- also the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) -- led a Tri-Service Military Delegation in this the third visit of an Indian Army Chief and the first by any Chairman of the COSC to China.

General JJ Singh's visit was a follow-up to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two countries for defence cooperation during the Beijing visit last year of erstwhile Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Minister Mukherjee's visit resulted in both sides deciding to engage in mutual confidence building measures including holding periodic joint military training exercises between their Armies.

General JJ Singh reached Beijing on May 21 to a ceremonial welcome by his Chinese counterpart General Liang Guanglie at the headquarters of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the top Chinese military organ.

During the weeklong visit, the Army Chief held wide-ranging talks with his counterpart as well as General Guo Boxiong, Vice Chairman of the CMC, and other senior defence officials.

His schedule included a call on Chinese Vice President Zeng Quinghong and newly- appointed Foreign Minister Yang Jiechie as well as visits to operational formations and higher military training institutions like the Academy of Military Sciences (AMS), Beijing.

The Indian delegation visited various PLA formations and institutions including the 15 Airborne Corps at Wuhan, 28 Air Division at Hangzhou and a naval base at Shanghai.

The two Armed Forces have upgraded military-to-military cooperation in a graduated manner beginning with the setting up of 'Peace and Tranquility' mechanism along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and has over the past few years graduated to holding of cultural and sports events among the forces deployed in the border areas.

The other mutual confidence building measures include allowing each other's military 'observers' at military exercises and maneuvers; extending facility of attending courses of instructions at each other's military training facilities and inviting high- level visits by the respective military delegations to each other's military establishments.

UNI

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