India hopes to boost military cooperation with China, jointly uphold border peace, stability: DM

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Wednesday that India hopes to strengthen military cooperation with China and make concerted efforts to uphold peace and stability in border areas.

Parrikar made the comments during a meeting here with Sun Jianguo, deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of China's Central Military Commission.

Sun is in India to attend the 8th meeting of China-India Defense and Security Consultation.

Parrikar said India and China have enjoyed a long history of friendship and his country values its ties with China. He called on the two countries and militaries to conduct more exchanges so as to further enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Sun Jianguo, for his part, said that the leaders of the two countries have met on many occasions in recent year and reached important consensus on enhancing bilateral strategic communication, deepening friendly and pragmatic cooperation and seeking common development.

"China adheres to a peaceful development path and also a defensive defense policy," the senior Chinese military official said, highlighting that China carries out the concept of "amity, sincerity, sharing in prosperity, and inclusiveness" in neighborhood diplomacy.

Under the guidance of their leaders, China and India have been making progress in various fields including defense and the two countries have been committed to advancing their strategic cooperative partnership, he said.

Hailing the good momentum of exchanges between the two militaries, Sun called for the two sides to further strengthen cooperation in various fields and properly manage and control differences, jointly uphold peace and stability in border areas for the benefit of the two countries and two peoples. Endit