India to strengthen Air Defence System; India to resume full defence cooperation with China
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    • India will soon buy a large number of missiles to defend the country's vital tactical and strategic locations and high-security zones from enemy threats and possible aerial attacks. The defence ministry has a request for information (RFI) from global and domestic missile manufacturers asking them if they could supply the weapon system within a short time-frame to the Indian Air Force (IAF). The ministry has accorded high priority to this deal.1

    In a significant development, after a long gap, India is all set to restore full defense cooperation with China, with a high-level military delegation to visit the country expectedly in June this year and an in-principle agreement reached for setting up a mechanism for consultations and coordination on border affairs. The decisions were concluded during a 50-minute meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu Jintao in Sanya, China. As part of the measure, there will be a series of visits including by an Indian military delegation to China besides exchange of visits by senior political leaders, holding of strategic economic dialogue, official consultations and people-to-people contact. The decision to send a military delegation to China marks an end to the freeze on all high level defense exchanges by India after the then Northern Army Commander Lt. Gen. B.S. Jaswal was denied a proper visa in July last year for travel to Beijing because he served in Jammu and Kashmir for which China follows a different visa policy from the rest of India.2

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