By Prashanth Parameswaran
Beijing and New Delhi will hold the fifth iteration of their ‘Hand-in-Hand’ exercises.
India and China are set to hold a round of bilateral exercises next month in spite of border tensions over the past few weeks, officials confirmed last week.
According to Indian defense sources, the two militaries will hold the fifth edition of their “Hand in Hand” exercises in Kunming, Yunnan province for two weeks from October 11.
The exercise, which is meant to alternate between India and China, is part of a series of confidence-building measures that the two Asian giants have put in place to manage tensions between them, including on border issues.
As I have noted previously, border disputes between Beijing and New Delhi largely center around two separate pieces of territory: Aksai Chin and what India terms Arunachal Pradesh (or, for China, Southern Tibet), the latter being the site of the Sino-Indian war in 1962. But ambiguity still remains on other matters, including Sikkim, and other irritants tend to be dragged in as well like India’s harboring of the Dalai Lama and China’s alleged “string of pearls” strategy allegedly designed to strangle New Delhi.
Read the full story at The Diplomat