Beijing/New Delhi: Top defence officials from China and India met in Beijing on Monday and held talks on strengthening military ties. Xu Qiliang, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, met India's Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma, Xinhua reported.
Sharma also met China's Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Qi Jianguo, said a statement issued in New Delhi.
Xu said China and India, being the biggest developing countries in the world, are important neighbours for each other.
He said the two countries have extensive common interests and were developing friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation, in line with the aspirations of the people in both nations.
The Chinese official said he believes that the two countries have enough wisdom and ability to handle their relationship and are able to pave a healthy and stable development path for it.
Xu said China attaches great importance in developing military ties with India.
Beijing hopes to increase mutual strategic trust, enhance friendly communication and deepen pragmatic cooperation to make a positive contribution to the world and regional peace and stability, he said.
Sharma said India attaches great importance to developing its relationship with China and that he was confident military relations between the two countries would progress in the future.
The statement issued in New Delhi said both countries agreed upon a plan of bilateral military exchanges for 2013 which includes the next joint military exercise.
"The two sides discussed bilateral, regional and international issues of common interests including the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and in the India-China border areas," the statement said.
It said the two sides reviewed the ongoing measures to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The 4,057-km LAC traverses Indian territories disputed by China in three sectors - western (Ladakh), middle (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh).
India and China had announced in September last year that they will resume joint military exercises.
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