Growing exchanges on counter-terrorism cooperation

The Kunming hand-in-hand military exercise was followed up by several high level visits of senior officials from both countries to further strengthen the cooperation on counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. In this regard, China took the lead when it sent its General Fan Changlong, the powerful vice chairman of the Central Military Commission to engage with Indian leadership on a broad range of issues including border dialogue and counter-terrorism cooperation. It must be recalled that India had expressed its displeasures at Chinese refusal to list Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a Lashkar-e-Toiba commander and Mumbai attack mastermind among the group of terrorists at the United Nations. Therefore, General Fan's visit was intended to end such misgivings by exploring genuine mechanisms for counter-terrorism cooperation between two countries.

India returned the Chinese gesture by sending its Home Minister Rajnath Singh to hold talks with Chinese counterpart on range of issues beneficial to both countries. Singh's five-day visit, which included high level talks with officials namely Guo Shengkun, public security minister, and security chief Meng Jianzhu, explored among other the feasibility of establishing continuous communication channel on terrorism and other security related issues. The high point of the meetings was that both countries finally agreed to create comprehensive mechanisms to push initiatives on counter-terrorism operations, sharing of inputs on terrorist outfits and their activities. In essence, these initiatives are a clear follow up of counter-terrorism agreements reached out between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their state visits.

On balance, high level meetings and regular military drills and cordial exchanges at sensitive border points indicate maturity and greater degree of understanding among two big neighbors. Given that both countries face threats of insurgency, terrorism, sectarian and separatist challenges, there is great scope to learn from each other's experience. There is limitless possibility for China and India to cooperate on counter-terrorism and related issues. Best thing is the leadership of both countries are aware of such opportunities.

Niranjan Sahoo is senior fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.