Border security and military cooperation are to be discussed.

Kolkata (AsiaNews/SCMP) – General Liang Guanglie, Chief of general Staff of China People's Liberation Army, is meeting today Indian political and military leaders in New Delhi. For many experts, this is a sign of warming ties between the two nuclear powers.

Officials said General Liang and his Indian counterpart General J.J. Singh are to informally discuss confidence-building measures aimed at promoting peace on the border.

"They will work out the details of a broad agreement signed during Premier Wen Jiabao's March visit designed to deal with inadvertent border intrusions by armed forces from either side," said a senior Indian official.

The generals are also expected to discuss other steps such as military-to-military exchanges.

During his four-day visit, General Liang is scheduled to meet Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash and Air Force Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, as well as National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan.

Indian Defence Ministry officials said General Liang will tour defence headquarters in New Delhi, a paratrooper training school and air force base in Agra, the Southern Command in Pune, and the Western Naval Command's offices in Maharashtra and Goa.

General Singh's predecessor, General N.C. Vij, visited the mainland in December.

The two countries fought a brief border war in 1962 that has not officially ended.

Mainland China and India share a 3,500 km border, with each side claiming the other occupies some of its territory.

A post-war Line of Control was established along the border and negotiations to recognise it as a permanent border are progressing slowly.

This said, China and India have held their first joint military exercises, involving a handful of naval ships off the mainland's eastern seaboard, in 2003. 

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