China hopes resumption of Sino-India military drills will provide impetus to bilateral ties
Beijing: China on Monday expressed hope that the resumption of military exercises between the Indian and Chinese armies that will begin on Tuesday would inject impetus and yield good results for the improvement of bilateral ties.
An Indian military team headed by Col Puneet Tomar has arrived in China's southwestern Chengdu city to take part in the 'Hand-in-Hand' military drills between the two armies starting there from Tuesday, the Indian Embassy here said.
Officials earlier said both sides would field 100 personnel to take part in the seventh edition of the exercises. The inaugural ceremony would be held on Tuesday and the drills would be concluded on December 23.
The drills are being held after a gap of one year as they could not be held last year because both armies were locked in a 73-day standoff at Doklam in the Sikkim sector.
Asked about how China viewed the exercises being resumed after Doklam, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said "we hope this can have a good results".
He referred to the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at Wuhan in April this year and the "important consensus" reached between the two leaders to improve relations.
He noted that the two leaders had met four times this year.
The two countries should implement the consensus between the two leaders including the exchanges between the two militaries, Lu said.
"Under the guidance of the consensus between the two leaders and through the concerted efforts of the two sides, I hope the exchanges between the two militaries can achieve positive outcomes, injecting impetus to the bilateral ties," he said.
The Chinese military earlier said the subject of the exercises will include adoptive and basic training, and live shooting.