PLA wants to advance defence ties with India: policy paper

Beijing (PTI) The Chinese military Thursday
said it is working to advance its ties with the defence forces
of India, even as it intends to strengthen its already
"multi-dimensional" relationship with the Pakistani military.
In a 41-page "white paper" outlining the policies and
perceptions of world's largest standing military of 2.3
million personnel, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) said it
intends to work at building trust with its neighbouring
countries.
"China has strengthened military relations with its
neighbouring countries," said the PLA policy paper.
"It conducts friendly exchanges with the DPRK (North
Korea) and the ROK (South Korea) militaries, attaches
importance to Sino-Japanese defence exchanges, strengthens
multi-dimensional Sino-Pakistani military exchanges and
cooperation, works to advance the Sino-Indian military
relationship," the paper released to the media by its top
military brass said.
While PLA shares very close strategic links with its
all-weather ally Pakistan, it has also in the recent past
tried to enhance ties with the Indian military as part of
wider attempts to improve overall relations between the two
countries.
The process suffered a reverse last year after India,
in response to the denial of visa by China to its top General
B S Jaswal on the ground that he headed troops in Jammu and
Kashmir, which it regards as disputed territory. He was to
come to Beijing to attend a bilateral meeting.
Following this, India called off its defence exchanges
with PLA, even though Chinese Defence Ministry continues to
maintain that its military ties with India were intact.
The issue was expected to figure in next month's
meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese
President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of Brazil, Russia, India,
China, South Africa (BRICS) at the Chinese island of Sanya.
China had also promised to review its policy to issue
stapled visas to residents of J and K.
Besides this, the paper, which is issued every year
said China faced an increasingly "volatile" Asian region, in
the backdrop of attempts by US to expand its footprints.
"Profound changes are taking shape in the Asia-Pacific
strategic landscape. Relevant major powers are increasing
their strategic investment... The United States is reinforcing
its regional military alliances and increasing its involvement
in regional security affairs. Suspicion about China,
interference and countering moves against China from the
outside are on the increase," it said.
It reiterated that China's national defence policy
is "defensive" in nature and said the pursuit of such a
national defence policy is determined by China's development
path.