Govt to conduct trust building counter-terror drills with China post border row

The government will hold counter-terrorism exercises with China despite a recent standoff between their armies in Ladakh, officials said, in a sign the two governments want to manage their deep differences.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, which has struck an assertive national security posture, also agreed to the Chinese government's request to move November's exercises away from the border with Pakistan, with which China shares a close relationship.

The trust building drills come just weeks after armies of the two countries confronted each other on their disputed border in Ladakh, accusing each other of building roads and observations posts in disputed territory.

"The exercises are a confidence-building measure, it is in everyone's interest," Jayadeva Ranade, the China specialist on the country's National Security Advisory Board, told Reuters.

"It doesn't mean anyone is conceding anything."

The row in the Chumar region of Ladakh erupted around the time of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to the national capital for his first summit with Modi since the Prime Minister won the election in May. The leaders of the Asian giants aim to ramp up commercial ties.

The government sees the anti-terrorism collaboration with China as a way to highlight the threat they both face from Islamist militants in Pakistan.

It had arranged for the Chinese to practise mock assaults in Bhatinda, about 110 km from the Pakistan border.

HOT BORDER

Last week China sought a change in the location of only the second such exercises after tension rose on the India-Pakistan border with the two sides exchanging fire, killing civilians.

"China had agreed to it initially, but then they opted for a change because the border got hot," said a military source, who did not wish to be named.

The two armies will field 103 soldiers each for the "hand-in-hand" manoeuvres in Pune that involve scenarios such as recapturing a border post taken over by terrorists, the military source said.

The country has long faced attacks that it blames on Pakistan based militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has links with Pakistani security agents.

China says it faces a threat from Islamists in its far western region of Xinjiang, some of whom it says have received training overseas, including in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

But China remains a close ally of Pakistan and says it supports and appreciates the Pakistani government's efforts to fight terrorism. China declined a previous proposal by the government to hold exercises in Rajasthan, which also shares a border with Pakistan.

The Indian and Chinese armies, who fought a brief war in 1962, have limited interaction and the exercises themselves are nowhere near the scale and sophistication of the country's annual war games with the United States involving thousands of naval, army and air force personnel.

"The India-China joint operations are meant to open a channel of communication between soldiers at the medium- and low-levels," said Srikanth Kondapalli, a China specialist at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"It builds a bit of trust, especially after the Chumar incident."

(Reuters)