India's three main warships arrived in the East China Sea area near Shanghai Nov. 10, starting the Sino-India naval searching and rescuing joint exercise, also the second joint exercise in non-traditional security field conducted by Chinese navy with a foreign counterpart.  

The military attaché with the Indian Embassy in China had an exclusive interview with reporter before setting off to Shanghai. He briefed on the arrangement of the forthcoming visit and joint exercise. On Nov. 10, the three Indian warships will visit Shanghai in succession and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Fleet of Indian navy will preside over a reception on the warship INS Ranjit. From Nov. 10 to 13, Indian and Chinese navies will visit each other's warships as usual to familiarize themselves with each other's situation and formulate detailed plans, making preparations for the joint exercise. Indian naval officers concerned also meet with leaders of the Shanghai municipal government concerned. On Nov. 14, the joint exercise will formally be launched. With regard to the duration and details of the joint exercise, the military officer said "it will be fixed after the arrival of Indian warships and the two sides send staff to each other for information."

According to the military attaché, the three main warships sent by India to China this time are INS Ranjit, a guided missile destroyer, INS Kulish, a guided missile corvette and INS Jyoti and a large fleet replenishment tanker (a large fleet depot ship) with about 650 soldiers on board under the command of R. P. Suthan, commander-in-chief of Indian navy's Eastern Fleet. When talking about the scale of China's fleet, the military attaché said "at least two." He also said that the upcoming joint exercise was limited to "searching and rescuing at sea." At the joint exercise, there will be "wracks" acted by some ships sending signals for help and Chinese and Indian fleets will take joint rescue action.

China and India are both naval powers. The South China Sea and the Malacca Strait in the sea areas of the Indian Ocean are important international waters at sea. In September 2000 at the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Indian diplomatic relations, India sent a special fleet consisting of its self-made INS Delhi, a guided missile destroyer and INS Kora, a missile corvette to Wusong military port in Shanghai for a four-day visit. One year later, as a return visit, the guided missile destroyer Harbin and comprehensive depot ship Taicang of the Chinese navy called Bombay, India's largest port city. However, it is the first time for the two navies to launch joint military exercise. The officer said that this joint exercise aims at strengthening the understanding and coordination between the two navies so as to jointly conduct searching and rescuing smoothly in the future. He also expressed his hope for more similar joint exercises in the future.

On Nov. 6, when answering reporters' questions, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said that the searching and rescuing joint exercise held by Chinese and Indian navies is cooperation in non-traditional security field between the two sides. She noted that non-traditional security issues include many aspects and involve a series of issues such as terrorism, drug, smuggling and transnational crimes. Ever since the "9.11" event, terrorism and other non-traditional security issues become more outrageous and this calls for the cooperation among various countries to tackle the challenges facing international peace and development. This issue has extensive involvement and discussions on relevant definitions are underway among scholars.

(People’s Daily November 12, 2003)