No Sino-Indian Army war game

There won't be the annual Sino-India joint army exercise this year too. The two sides, however, are now working towards holding the counter-terrorism war game in 2011.

There won't be the annual Sino-India joint army exercise this year too. The two sides, however, are now working towards holding the counter-terrorism war game in 2011.

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A decision in this regard was taken by the two countries at their annual defence dialogue held in Beijing during Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar's two-day visit last week.

"The 2011 Sino-Indian joint Army exercise will be held in China. There will be no exercise in 2010. The preparation for the 2011 exercise has begun," a Defence Ministry official said in New Delhi on Monday.

The two sides had not scheduled any exercise in 2009, as People's China celebrated its 60th anniversary.

"Now that the first official meeting between the two countries took place, they have begun preparations for the 2011 exercise," the official said, explaining why there would be no war game this year.

The two countries had for the first time exercised jointly in December 2007 when an Indian contingent went to Kunming military base in Yunan province in China.

The reciprocal exercise -- called Hand-in-Hand -- was held in Belgaum in Karnataka in November 2008.

Kumar, who led a 10-member delegation, held talks with Chinese Deputy Chief of General Staff General Ma Xiatian regarding the exercise, when both sides expressed the hope that defence exchanges mechanism would lead to strong mutual trust and confidence.