India and China announced Tuesday they would resume joint military exercises after a four-year gap, a move designed to build trust in the often prickly relationship between the world's two most populous nations. After Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony hosted talks with his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie, the pair told reporters they had debated some of the main sources of friction between the two sides and agreed a series of measures.
"We have decided that (to restart military exercises)," Antony told reporters after his meeting with Liang, the first Chinese defence minister to visit the Indian capital in eight years.
"We covered a lot about the situation in the South Asia, Asia-Pacific region," Antony said. The disputed border between India and China has been the subject of 14 rounds of fruitless talks since 1962, when the two nations fought a brief, bloody war over the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. But Liang confirmed that there was now a mutual desire to move forward. "We have reached a consensus on high-level visits and exchange of personnel, maritime security... and co-operation between the two navies," Liang said after Tuesday's talks.