India and China may soon allow exchange of military officers on either side to attend courses at specialised military training academies in each other’s country.
The two countries,have fought war in 1961 due to claims and counter-claims along the 3,488-km-long frontier running all along the Himalayan ridge line., Currently there is little military exchange between the two countries.
India India suspects China to support Pakistan by launching a simultaneous two-front war in the event of a conflagration between India & Pakistan. Such a move is expected to be closely monitored by not only Islamabad but also in Japan, USA and even Russia.
The offer to exchange cadets and officers in academies of either country was made during the visit by a high-level Indian delegation led by Air Marshal PP Reddy, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC), to Beijing on March 20 by Admiral Sun Jianguo, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), made the offer, sources said.
The Admiral was of the opinion was that the two militaries should maintain high-level exchanges, enhance mutual trust, manage and control differences and deepen pragmatic cooperation in fields such as education and training.
Allowing exchanges in military academies has been discussed for the first time at such a high level. It is believed that the exchanges are possible at all levels e.g.the National Defence College or the Army War College, or other academies like the Indian Military Academy, IAF Academy or the Naval Academy.
So far India has not displayed any aversion to the proposal.
Defence Secretary RK Mathur will be in China on April 8 for the annual defence dialogue (ADD) where the matter is expected to come up for discussion and decision-making.
So far, New Delhi and Beijing have had four rounds of the ‘hand-in-hand’ series of counter-terrorism military exercises. They have also conducted half a dozen scheduled border personnel meets at the three designated spots — Spangur Gap in eastern Ladakh, Nathu La in Sikkim and Bum la in Arunachal Pradesh.
“To have a small number of Chinese military personnel attending a course in an academy here in India will be an entirely different ball game,” said an officer, pointing out that, so far, officers of ‘friendly countries’ attend such courses.
Defence & Security Monitor 