INDIA: India and China are planning on holding their first joint naval exercises later this year to strengthen relations between the two sides, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi.
The nuclear rivals fought a brief but bitter war in 1962 over a territorial dispute which remains unresolved.
Discussions are also continuing with a 50-member Chinese air force delegation which arrived on a week-long visit to New Delhi earlier this week to conduct joint air manoeuvres, also for the first time.
Last week's announcement by Vice-Admiral John Desilva, the naval deputy chief, regarding the three-day naval search-and-rescue manoeuvres came within a week of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, returning from his six-day trip to China, the first by an Indian prime minister in a decade. Mr Vajpayee said talks would start "immediately" with China to end the outstanding border dispute.
Adm Desilva said the Indian navy had given China a proposal to hold anti-piracy exercises in the Malacca Straits, similar to those conducted with Indonesian and US warships in the region.
Chinese officials, he added, said their border guard vessels conducted anti-piracy operations after which the two sides opted for search-and-rescue exercises instead.
China wants to keep the Indian navy out of the Malacca Straits which it considers its "personal turf" and over which it exercises considerable control. Beijing was displeased when, after September 11th, the Indian navy patrolled the straits with the US navy for over a year.
The two sides have had rocky diplomatic and political relations for several years after the border war in which India came off worse. Several Indian leaders have repeatedly expressed concern over Beijing providing Pakistan with nuclear and missile technology, a claim that both countries deny.