JOIN USDefence Minister A K Antony will travel to Beijing on Thursday not only to boost the crisis-hit bilateral military relations but also to prepare the grounds for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China later this year.
Antony will be the second defence minister after Pranab Mukherjee to travel to China. Before Mukherjee’s tour, Chinese defence minister Gen Cao Gangchuan visited India in March 2004.
In 2006, Mukherjee visited Lanzhou military region and was taken on a guided tour in a Chinese warship in Shanghai, which thawed the frosty bilateral military relations between the two Asian giants.
As a consequence, armies from the two countries held an annual bilateral company-level army exercise, titled Hand-in-Hand, which began in 2007. But it was halted after the second edition in Belgaum in 2008 after China refused to give visa to then commander-in-chief of the Northern Command.
After diplomatic talks for a few years, the bilateral army exercise focusing on counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations is set to resume later this year. It is likely to be held in one of the military regions in China, adjacent to the Indian border, around October, though an official announcement is yet to be made.
During his July visit, Antony will be accompanied by Eastern Army Commander Lt Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag and Southern Naval Commander Vice Admiral Satish Soni. Both navies are looking at increasing interaction which may include more port calls. Antony's visit was being planned for quite some time as a follow-up to Chinese Defence Minister General Liang Guanglie trip last August. General Liang has now been replaced by Gen Chang Wanquan as the defence minister in the new Chinese regime.