China sees huge space to improve military relations with India

Singapore, Jun 4: Chinese Defence Minister has said that there is a huge space to improve military to military relations with India, but "disputes" or "sensitive issues" needed to be handled properly.

Liang Guanglie complained that some artificial obstacles were being raised by India's senior officials and media which were impeding the good momentum in defence cooperation between the two nations.

The Chinese minister made these remarks during a bilateral meeting with Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju on the sidelines of the 10th Asian Security Summit being held here.

"There were some irresponsible and unfounded remarks being made from time to time by Indian officials and media that impeded the progress on defence talks," Gen Liang said.

Reaffirming India's desire to boost defence cooperation with China, the Indian minister, responding, pointed out that India being a democracy had a very active media with sometimes was more critical about the functioning of the Indian government.

"We believe in strengthening our relationship with China. Our Prime Minister has, in many meetings with China's Head of State, reiterated: Let us focus on the positives of the relationship and grow from strength to strength," Raju said he told the Chinese Minister.

Raju also stressed the need for strengthening defence cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for each other's concerns.

PTI