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India will brief Chinese army chief of Pakistani adventurism

George Iype in New Delhi

India will articulate its deep-seated fears about Pakistan benefiting from China's nuclear and missile capabilities and how it is becoming a security threat to the region, when a high level Chinese defence delegation visits New Delhi next week.

General Quanyou Fu, chief of the People's Liberation Army, is leading a high-level defence team to India on April 26. The first visit by the Chinese army top brass to India is in reciprocation of earlier visits by Indian army chiefs Gen Shankar Roychowdhury and Gen B C Joshi to China.

Defence ministry sources said the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government will draw the Chinese army chief's attention to China's upgradation of logistical capabilities all along the India-China border for strengthened land and air operations.

"We have so far kept a tactical silence on security concerns regarding China. But now that Pakistan has test-fired the Ghauri missile, reportedly with technical help from the Chinese, we can no longer keep quiet," a defence official told Rediff On The Net.

He said the Indian government will also take up with General Fu, the Chinese nuclear and missile assistance to Pakistan, as well as its military co-operation with Myanmar, on India's eastern border.

Analysts say what lies at the heart of India's nuclear programmes is the fear of China's own nuclear capabilities and its assistance to Pakistan, as well as its refusal to accept non-proliferation pacts such as a ban on nuclear tests.

In November 1996, during Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to India -- the first by a Chinese president in four decades -- the two Asian countries signed an agreement to cut troop levels along the length of their disputed 4,000-km border.

General Fu and his Indian counterpart will review this agreement and take further initiatives to ease tension on the India-Chinese border, sources said.

While an agreement on the Himalayan border continues to elude both India and China, diplomatic efforts in recent years have helped the countries to improve bilateral trade ties.

Even though India is concerned over China's defence build-up, the Vajpayee government is said to be keen to further accelerate trade and business relations between the countries as it believes that economic co-operation could overtake security fears.

Soon after the defence team's visit to India, the Vajpayee government plans to send a high-level official team headed by either Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha or Industry Minister Ramakrishna Hegde to Beijing, government sources said.

Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral was scheduled to visit China last year as a follow-up to Jiang's visit to New Delhi in 1996. Government sources now do not rule out the possibility of a prime ministerial visit to Beijing in the coming months.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the Chinese army chief's visit to India, Prime Minister Vajpayee launched a damage control exercise over the recent public statements of Defence Minister George Fernandes.

Sources said the prime minister pulled up Fernandes for going public with his allegation that the Chinese army had intruded into India and built a helipad in Arunachal Pradesh.

Fernandes, always known for his strong line against China, had charged that the Chinese troops were entering the Indian territory at will. Soon after Pakistan test-fired the Ghauri missile, the defence minister stated that "China is the mother of Ghauri." He has also been vocal in opposing China on the Tibet issue.

Officials said the prime minister has advised Fernandes not to make these off-the-cuff comments either on Pakistan or China. Vajpayee -- who holds the external affairs portfolio -- is said to be worried that Fernandes's public statements on key diplomatic issues would be taken as part of the new government's foreign policy.

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