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| Saturday, 15 November 2003 |
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China, India launch first ever joint naval exercise BEIJING, Friday (Reuters) China and India launched their first joint naval exercise on Friday, just weeks after the Chinese navy held a similar drill with India's bitter rival, Pakistan. An Indian embassy official confirmed the exercise had started in the East China Sea. Nuclear-armed India and China agreed to hold the one-day exercise - and seek a speedy end to a decades-old border dispute - during a visit by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in June, the first by an Indian prime minister in a decade. Ties between the world's two most populous nations have been frosty since they fought a brief but brutal border war in 1962. The exercise was aimed at "ensuring the safety of maritime trade and improving coordination in search-and-rescue at sea", the Indian Defence Ministry said earlier this month. The drill comes as China has raised its profile on the world stage, putting a man in space, hosting six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear crisis and managing one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Analysts say the India-China exercise indicated that Beijing was trying to take a more balanced approach towards its relations with South Asia. China is Pakistan's main supplier of military hardware and analysts believe Beijing also helped Islamabad in its nuclear weapons programme. The China-Pakistan exercises preceded a visit to Beijing by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. But India and China see huge potential in economic ties. Indian imports of Chinese goods by far outstrip India's exports to China, but business leaders believe China's booming economy will offer an increasingly attractive export market as it opens up to international trade. Responding to a question on the impact of Friday's drill on China-Pakistan relations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said good relations with South Asian both countries were important. "China stands ready to continue its relationship with all its neighbours, including India and Pakistan, in the spirit of being kind to neighbours and treating neighbours as partners," the China Daily quoted Zhang as saying. (Reporting by Nick Macfie; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; |
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