Sino-India relations deepened, military ties healthy: China

Beijing (China): China has presented an upbeat picture of its ties with India in a policy document on Asia- Pacific security, saying their partnership has “deepened”, but skirted references to contentious issues like India’s NSG bid and efforts to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN.

A white paper titled “China’s Policies on Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation” said China and India made “new progress” in exchanges.

“Since 2015, the China-India strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity has been further deepened. The two countries have set the goal of forging a closer development partnership, made new progress in exchanges and cooperation in various areas and stayed in close communication and coordination on regional and international issues,” it said.

However, the policy document, skirted any reference to the differences over India’s entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and Beijing’s blocking of India’s bid to get Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Azhar designated as a global terrorist by the UN.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang on various multilateral forums, it said, “the two countries have maintained communication and coordination on international affairs and enhanced collaboration in the UN, BRICS, G20, China-India-Russia and other mechanisms”.

“They have cooperated on climate change, the WTO Doha Round of negotiations, energy and food security, reform of international financial and monetary institutions, and global governance. Such cooperation has helped safeguard the common interests of China, India and other developing countries,” it said.

The paper also said bilateral military ties also improved with close communication and exchanges.

“The relations between the Chinese and Indian militaries remain healthy and stable in general, with increasingly close communication and exchanges, and pragmatic cooperation in greater breadth and depth,” it said.

Eight rounds of defence and security consultation and six joint military anti-terrorism training exercises have been held so far, it said.

“Sound cooperation in personnel training, professional exchanges and other fields is being carried out,” the policy document said.

“The two sides have also conducted border defence cooperation which plays a positive role in maintaining peace and tranquillity in the border areas between China and India,” the white paper said.

Military officials of the two sides visited each other in 2015 and 2016, and “reached an important consensus on strengthening pragmatic cooperation between the two militaries and working together to maintain peace and stability in the border areas,” it said.

The paper also detailed the status of relations with the US, Russia, Japan and South Korea.

On the Asia Pacific security situation, it said the situation is stable on the whole, with a strong momentum for peace and development.