Article Posted on : - Jun 13, 2014

NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian and Chinese armies will hold their fourth joint military exercise in India in November even as China has pitched for promoting a new bilateral security concept based on "mutual trust".

"The next round of joint training exercises between the two armies will be held in India in November," Joint Secretary in-charge of China in the External Affairs Ministry Gautam Bambawale said at a conference on Wednesday, where his speech was read out.

The third joint exercise between the two armies had taken place in November 2013 in China's Chengdu city after a gap of five years.

The first exercise was held in China's Kunming city in 2007 followed by the second round at Belgaum in Karnataka in 2008. However, the round after that was called off by India following denial of visa to a top General, heading troops in Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing the conference organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), Chinese Ambassador Wei Wei said, "We should promote new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation."

The comments by Wei Wei came three days after Chinese President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held extensive talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during which both sides agreed to further boost ties in strategic areas.

The Ambassador also said that China and India should work closely to push for a mutually beneficial global economic regime and oppose protectionism of any form.

Seeking better economic and trade ties, Wei said both the countries should actively seek "common development" while following the principle of mutual benefit, cooperation and win-win situation.

He said both countries should make efforts to achieve "peaceful co-existence, equal participation and competition on an equal footing".

"We should respect each other's rights to make independent economic decisions, advocate a mutually beneficial global trade and economic regime and oppose protectionism in any form," he said.

China is India's biggest trading partner with two-way trade reaching close to USD 65 billion in 2013, according to official figures. However, the trade deficit in favour of China continued to mount to around USD 40 billion.

Bambawale identified trade deficit in favour of China as an issue for the government and said one of the measures to address it was to increase Chinese investment in India.

Noting that there was a need to make international governance "more just" and reasonable, Wei said the UN and groupings such as G20, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) should get "full scope" to play their role.