China sees huge space to improve military relations with India

From Gurdeep Singh
Singapore, Jun 4 (PTI) Chinese Defence Minister has
said that there is a huge space to improve military to
military relations with India, but "disputes" or "sensitive
issues" needed to be handled properly.
Liang Guanglie complained that some artificial
obstacles were being raised by India's senior officials and
media which were impeding the good momentum in defence
cooperation between the two nations.
The Chinese minister made these remarks during a
bilateral meeting with Indian Minister of State for Defence M
M Pallam Raju on the sidelines of the 10th Asian Security
Summit being held here.
"There were some irresponsible and unfounded remarks
being made from time to time by Indian officials and media
that impeded the progress on defence talks," Gen Liang said.
Reaffirming India's desire to boost defence
cooperation with China, the Indian minister, responding,
pointed out that India being a democracy had a very active
media with sometimes was more critical about the functioning
of the Indian government.
"We believe in strengthening our relationship with
China. Our Prime Minister has, in many meetings with China's
Head of State, reiterated: Let us focus on the positives of
the relationship and grow from strength to strength,"
Raju said he told the Chinese Minister.
Raju also stressed the need for strengthening defence
cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for each other's
concerns.