India wants friendly neighbours: Antony

India wants friendly neighbours and it was trying to find amicable solutions to the disputes with Pakistan and China, Defence Minister A K Antony said on Friday.

"With Pakistan and China we do not want any confrontation and we are trying to find a solution amicably, but problems are there," Antony said.

Antony, who was in Kochin to participate in a Coast Guard investiture ceremony, was replying to queries on cross border militancy in Jammu and Kashmir and border disputes with China.

On the border dispute with China, he said serious attempts are going on to sort out the issue. Discussions are going on with special representative of the prime minister and Chinese government and 11 rounds of talks have been completed.

"If something serious happens there is a mechanism to sort out the problem between the border security forces of the two countries and at diplomatic levels," he said.

The borders between India and China have not been demarcated officially. "We have our own perception of the border and they have theirs. While we believe that the entire Arunachal Pradesh is ours, China questions the same," he said.

In Jammu and Kashmir, compared to last year, the violence level had come down by 50 per cent, he said.

The only concern now was of cross border militancy which was continuing even after three years of ceasefire.

"Terrorists and militants are coming from across the border and they are getting support from them," he said.

India's top priority was speedy modernisation of defence forces. All neighbouring countries are modernising their forces and India cannot ignore that, Antony said.

"But at the same time, in the name of speedy modernisation, we cannot abandon transparency," he said.

Antony said the government was trying to find a solution at the earliest to some of the grievances and demands of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

The minister said he had two rounds of discussions in Jammu and Kashmir after taking over as Defence minister and has visited the state four times.

Antony said during his recent discussions with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and officials of the state government, it had been decided that army and paramilitary forces would hand over school buildings, hospitals, guest houses, play grounds and other public offices under their control to the government before November 30.

The Union government had also decided to give higher rentals to the land of farmers being occupied by the armed forces in that state, he said.

"We have decided to increase the rent substantially and whatever the state government recommends, it would be approved," he said.