SHILLONG, India: India’s air force chief on Monday said he was keen to hold joint manoeuvres with China as there are “no issues” with the country despite an unresolved border dispute that caused a war in 1962.
The comments came two months after New Delhi upset Beijing by hosting naval exercises involving 29 warships and 160 fighter aircraft from the United States, Australia, Japan and Singapore in the Indian Ocean.
Indian air force chief Fali Homi Major said he saw no harm in holding joint aerial manoeuvres with China, which gave India a bloody nose during a brief but bitter border war. “Hopefully in the near future we may have a joint military exercises with China,” Major told reporters at the Eastern Air Command base at Shillong in northeast India.
“I can’t give the time but there are no issues between India and China which prevents both the countries from having such exercises.” “The Indian army will have military exercises with China next year and so why not with the Indian air force too?” Major said.
India and China have agreed to hold an exercise involving troops but the two mutually-suspicious militaries are yet to agree on a date or venue. They have in the past conducted naval exercises in the East China Sea, but otherwise contacts between two of the world’s largest armed forces have been limited.
The Indian air force has held joint manoeuvres with countries such as Britain, France and the US. The frost in the Sino-Indian ties has showed signs of thawing since the 1990s but they are yet to resolve their thorny border row.
India says China occupies 38,000 square kilometres (14,670 square miles) of its territory, while Beijing claims 90,000 square kilometres or the whole of the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
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