Wednesday, February 22 2006 15:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Beijing: The militaries of India and China have decided to take more confidence building measures, including more sporting events along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) so as to keep the border areas incident-free, official sources said here today (Feb 22 2006).

A high-level Indian Army delegation led by the GOC-in-C Eastern Command, Lt Gen Arvind Sharma held constructive talks here with senior officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), including the Commander of the Beijing Military Region, Zhang Li, here this week.

Noting that the armies of India and China held a friendly volleyball match in Nathula in Sikkim in September last year, Sharma said that more such sporting events would be organised to enhance mutual trust between the defence forces of the two countries.

Interestingly, the visit of the Indian Army delegation is taking place when Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is also making a high-profile state visit to China and signed a new military cooperation agreement with Beijing, the closest ally of Islamabad.

About the Indian defence team's visit, Lt Gen Sharma said: "As far as this visit is concerned, we had a very cordial interaction. The Chinese side is genuinely interested in improving the relations."

"Interactions on the frontiers are going on well," he told sources, pointing out that soldiers from both armies were already going on joint mountaineering expeditions, playing volleyball matches and even and sharing meals on their inaccessible Himalayan joint border area.

Interactions on the Frontiers

"We intend to take these further forward to enable more interaction. The effort is to try and increase interaction at the local level also," he said, adding that the idea is to ensure that peace prevails on the borders.

"The talks that I had indicate that the understanding and cooperation between India and China needs to becarried forward," Lt Gen Sharma said.

Apart from holding talks with the PLA officers here, the Indian Army delegation visited the National Defence University here. The delegation also met with Indian Ambassador to China Nalin Surie.

They will also visit PLA units in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, headquarters of Chengdu Military Region in Chengdu and Shanghai, the communist nation's economic hub.

Lt Gen Sharma's visit to Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan province assumes importance as the Chinese side of the Sino-Indian border is under the command of the Chengdu Military Region of the PLA.

At the same time, the Eastern Command of the Indian Army guards the Indian side of the India-China border.