India, China military to interact more on border

The militaries of India and China have decided to adopt more confidence building measures, including conducting more sporting events along the LAC.

The militaries of India and China have decided to adopt more confidence building measures, including conducting more sporting events along the Line of Actual Control, so as to keep the border areas incident-free, official sources said here on Wednesday.

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A high-level Indian Army delegation led by the GOC-in-C Eastern Command, Lt Gen Arvind Sharma held constructive talks here with senior officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), including the Commander of the Beijing Military Region, Zhang Li, here this week.

Noting that the armies of India and China held a friendly volleyball match in Nathula in Sikkim in September last year, Sharma said that more such sporting events would be organised to enhance mutual trust between the defence forces of the two countries.

Interestingly, the visit of the Indian Army delegation is taking place when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is also making a high-profile state visit to China and signed a new military cooperation agreement with Beijing, the closest ally of Islamabad.

About the Indian defence team's visit, Lt Gen Sharma said: "As far as this visit is concerned, we had a very cordial interaction. The Chinese side is genuinely interested in improving the relations."

"Interactions on the frontiers are going on well," he said, pointing out that soldiers from both armies were already going on joint mountaineering expeditions, playing volleyball matches and even and sharing meals on their inaccessible Himalayan joint border area.