INDIAN MILITARY DELEGATION TO VISIT CHINA

INDIAN MILITARY DELEGATION TO VISIT CHINA

India has decided to send a truncated military delegation to China after Beijing denied visa to an Indian Air Force (IAF) official because he is from Arunachal Pradesh, Foreign Office sources said. The composition of the Indian defence delegation has been halved from 30 to 15 said the sources while denying reports that the visit had been shelved.

Sources said the officer will not be part of the smaller delegation. India in the past has avoided sending officials domiciled in Arunachal Pradesh for defence exchanges with China. Analysts here wondered whether India was trying to judge China’s response by selecting the officer or if he was inadvertently chosen for the tri-services defence exchange.

There were reports that till Friday night the Government was considering the idea of putting off the trip. This would have been the second break in defence exchanges over visa issues for armed forces personnel in less than two years. India had suspended high level defence exchanges in 2010 after China denied a stamped visa to a senior army on grounds that he was serving in Jammu and Kashmir. It took a year and high level interaction between the Indian and Chinese leaderships to resume high level defence exchanges though border and other flag meetings had been taking place as scheduled. 

                                                            Prof. John Kurakar