IAF Chief’s China visit may be off
The government could be veering around to the view that the time may not be ripe for any proposed visit of IAF chief Air Chief Marshal N.A.K Browne to China in 2013. Well-placed sources said the feeling in government circles was that there were not as many high-level visits from the Chinese side to India this year in contrast with the larger number of Indian high-level visits to China.
According to sources, there may have been a proposed visit of the IAF chief to China scheduled in October, but sources said any such official visit is now unlikely to take place that month. India and China had earlier decided to intensify co-operative exchanges between the armed forces of the two countries. While the armies of the two countries have planned to hold joint military exercises in November 2013 in China, it was also decided earlier by the two governments that even the air forces and navies of the two countries should increase friendly exchanges.
One defence source admitted that a proposed visit of the IAF chief to China could have been tentatively on the cards earlier but said that even if that were the case, the planning would have been at a very preliminary stage. Sources said the MEA is also consulted before every high-level defence visit that is planned.
India and China are moving ahead with strengthening of ties despite certain irritants such as Chinese transgressions across the Line of Actual Control.
India has maintained that such transgressions take place because both countries have different perceptions of the LAC and so, patrol upto their respective perception.
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