By Vivek Raghuvanshi
New Delhi, Jan 10 : India and China have agreed to expand security cooperation following high-level defense talks in Beijing.
Indian Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar met Jan. 6-7 with Ma Xiaotian, People's Liberation Army deputy chief of the General Staff, a senior Indian Defence Ministry official said.
It is the first time that an Indian Defence Ministry official with the rank of a permanent secretary has traveled to China for defense cooperation talks, a Defence Ministry source said. Discussions included "very sensitive" issues, the source said - an apparent reference to India's concern over the Chinese military buildup, particularly in naval assets, and a boundary dispute in which China claims 92,000 square kilometers of what is now Indian territory. This represents the longest contested boundary in the world.
The border between India and China is currently defined by a 4,056-kilometer Line of Actual Control (LAC), which is marked neither on the ground nor on mutually accepted maps. Efforts since the 1980s to establish a recognized LAC have made little headway.
India and China held joint anti-terror exercises in October 2007 in the mountainous Chengdu Military region of the northeast.
India and China signed a memorandum in 2006 to conduct joint military exercises in the fields of "search and rescue, anti-piracy, counterterrorism and other areas of mutual interest."
New Delhi has shown concern over China's increased defense spending.
The Indian Defence Ministry's annual report issued in early July says China's military modernization needs to be "monitored carefully" for implications on India's defense and security.
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