BEIJING – A resumption of joint military exercises between India and Chinawill reduce tensions between the two nuclear-armed adversaries, expertssaid on Friday.
The two countries hold annual military drills, known as hand-in-handexercises, but failed to agree on a joint exercise in 2017. Now, accordingto local media reports, Beijing has asked New Delhi to resume the drills,indicating an improvement in relations.
“Every time there is any tension between the two countries, there is abreak in these military drills,” said Lt. Gen. (Retd.) S.L. Narasimhan, aChina expert. “Any kind of interaction is a good thing. It will increasemutual trust and understanding and help reduce tension.”
India and China are old rivals. India has lost one war to its easternneighbor and the two continue to wrestle for dominance in the subcontinent.China is also a political and military ally to India’s arch-enemy on itswestern flank, Pakistan.
In May 2017, Sri Lanka refused a request by China to dock a submarine onthe island. Sri Lanka agreed to a similar request in 2014, resulting infierce opposition from India, which is worried about a growing Chinesepresence in its neighborhood.
A month later, India and China were locked in a face-off on the Doklamplateau, a 100 square kilometer plateau and valley at the boundary ofIndia, Bhutan and China. The area is the subject of a dispute between Chinaand Bhutan.
More recently, China sold Pakistan a highly sophisticated, powerful opticaltracking and measurement system, making it the first country in the Indiansubcontinent to acquire a missile that is capable of carrying multiplenuclear warheads and one that can overwhelm a missile defense system. TheChinese team spent three months in Pakistan assembling the system andtraining Pakistani officers.
News of the sale came on the heels of India testing its Agni-VInter-Continental Ballistic Missile, which can strike almost all of China.Experts agreed that the “leak” of the sale of the tracking equipment wasChina’s message to India that it had ways to counter the Agni-V.
Now both sides are trying to ease the tensions, Narasimhan said.
According to Indian media reports, New Delhi asked senior leaders andgovernment officials to avoid events planned to mark the 60th anniversaryof the Dalai Lama’s flight from Chinese authorities to India because it wasa “very sensitive time” for bilateral relations with China.
Soon after Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale flew to China to meet theChinese foreign minister. This was followed by the most recent reports ofBeijing asking New Delhi to restart the military drills.
“Both sides seem to be practically inclined to get on with bilateralrelations,” Narasimhan said. “Both seem to be reaching out to each otherand that’s a good thing.”