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Pranab Mukherjee to meet Chinese Premier
Wen undertook a successful visit to India in April last year during which Beijing and New Delhi decided to upgrade their bilateral ties.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee will call on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday to discuss bilateral political issues after Monday's military-level parleys.
Wen undertook a successful visit to India in April last year during which Beijing and New Delhi decided to upgrade their bilateral ties to strategic levels.
Mukherjee will also meet with the Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission, General Guo Boxiong, before winding up the first leg of his six-day state visit to China, official sources said.
Mukherjee and his Chinese counterpart Gen Cao Gangchuan on Monday signed a historic and first-ever MoU to institutionalise military training and expressed their "endeavour" to hold joint military exercises and training programmes so as to add more content to the two countries' emerging strategic relations.
"This is the first-ever agreement of its kind between the two countries and I am confident that it will serve as an effective framework for facilitating our defence dialogue and exchanges," Mukherjee told Cao during their over two-hour-long interaction.
"We must work together to implement it fully," he said.
Mukherjee said the MoU provides a formal basis for the first time for defence and military exchanges that have been taking place between the two countries in the last few years.
