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India joins China’s naval parade

- PHOTO: XINHUA

FOSTERING FRIENDSHIP: Indian Navy officers with Chinese children after missile destroyers INS Mumbaiand INS Ranveer arrived in Qingdao, Shandong Province, on Sunday.

QINGDAO: China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) kicked off a grand ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of its Navy on Monday off the coast of the eastern city of Qingdao.

PLA Navy Commander Admiral Wu Shengli announced the start of the four-day festivities. It would include seminars, a sampan race and a fleet parade.

A total of 21 naval vessels from 14 countries including India and delegations from 29 countries will join the parade. The PLA Navy was founded on April 23, 1949, with nine warships and 17 boats obtained after a unit of the Kuomintang’s second coastal defence fleet defected to the PLA.

“The Navy will move faster in researching and building new-generation weapons to boost the ability to fight in regional sea wars under the circumstance of information technology,” Navy Commander Admiral Wu Shengli told Xinhua earlier.

In addition to ships, aircraft and torpedoes, long-range missiles with high accuracy, submarines with superb invisibility and endurance and electronic weapons and facilities were also on the Navy’s agenda.

He said the Navy would have more equipment for offshore repair, high-seas dispatch, large-scale rescue and supply among others.

According to Admiral Wu, the Navy will add the capacity for non-war actions to the Army’s power, especially emergency offshore search-and-rescue and anti-terrorism activities.

Since 2003, President Hu Jintao has repeatedly inspected the Navy and made suggestions on its construction.

Current threats to the country’s security came mostly from sea, said Mr. Hu who is also chairman of the Central Military Commission. He urged the Navy to achieve sound and fast development and enhance defensive operations with information technology.

The officer said the celebrations would be an opportunity for foreign navies to have intensive and close observation of the PLA Navy’s facilities and personnel.

On the maiden visit of an Indian Navy chief to China, Admiral Sureesh Mehta will be attending the fleet review during his week-long tour, an official said in New Delhi.

Seeking to engage the Chinese military on a greater level, Admiral Mehta flew to China on Saturday night and would return on April 25.

INS Mumbai and INS Ranveer, the guided missile corvette INS Khanjar and the tanker INS Jyoti are participating in the review. Pakistani warships also are taking part.

“Mehta will also be visiting ships and submarines of the Chinese Navy during this trip and will be calling on Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie on April 22, said an officer.

Indian and Chinese warships have been making calls at each other’s ports as part of growing confidence building measures between the two sides.

The Indian Navy chief’s visit follows that of Admiral Wu’s to India last year. Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, has also visited China.

The two armies undertook their first joint exercise at Kunming in Yunnan province in December 2007 and the second at Belgaum last December. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in May 2006 that they would hold joint military exercises. — Xinhua, IANS

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