EVENTS

Abstract

The year 2014 has been designated by the governments of India and China as the Year of Friendly Exchanges. Defence exchanges and military exercises are important components in building greater trust and confidence between two countries. There has already been a broad range of military exchanges between the two neighbours, which have contributed to developing better mutual understanding. The presentation will discuss the objectives of the cooperation between the two militaries, visits by senior military officers, subscription to military courses in army training institutes in India and China, joint military exercises, visit of naval ships and meetings of the border personnel. The scopes, issues and challenges in military relations in the future will be the main focus the talk.

Lt. Gen. JS Bajwa (retd.) is an Infantry Officer, retired from the Indian Army after over 39 years in uniform. During his service he had the opportunity to virtually traverse the whole country and serve along most of the country’s borders and in Counter-Insurgency/Counter-Terrorist operations. He had held various appointments in the Army Headquarters in Operations and Perspective Planning directorates and served in assignments as Instructor in Military Training establishments. Lt Gen Bajwa was previously on a research fellowship with the ICS which resulted in the book, Modernisation of the PLA (2002). A revised edition, Modernisation of Chinese PLA: From Massed Militia to Force Projection, was published in 2012.