Indian, Chinese armies hold flag meeting in eastern Ladakh

New Delhi, Jun 28: Armies of

and

today held a flag meeting in eastern

to discuss the situation along their boundary and agreed to maintain peace and tranquility there.

The meeting was held at the level of Brigadiers at Spanggur Gap in eastern Ladakh where the two sides discussed the situation along the boundary and agreed to maintain peace and tranquility, army officials said here.

They said the meeting between the delegations of the two armies was part of Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between the two sides.

Such meetings between the two sides are held at regular intervals, they said.

Defence ties between the two countries have shown progress with New Delhi mulling joint exercises with Beijing next year after the just-concluded naval drills in Shanghai held after a gap of six years. India is planning military exercises with China which will also include army-to-army exercises.

The armies of the two countries last held counter- insurgency and counter-terrorism wargames called 'Hand-in-Hand' in 2009 in Belgaum in India and prior to that in China in 2007.

India and China had agreed to enhance defence exchanges and communication for better understanding and mutual trust during the fourth round of Annual Defence Dialogue (ADD) held here in December last year after choppy military ties for two years.

New Delhi had suspended military exchanges with China in August 2010 after it had refused to grant permission to a senior Indian Army Commander to proceed on an official trip to Beijing.

As an immediate fallout of the event, India refused to hold the third round of military exercise and had put all other military exchanges on hold.

PTI