New Delhi, Nov 29 (bdnews24.com) Chief of Army Staff General Mohammed Abdul Mubeen has said that China is just helping Bangladesh in infrastructure development and that Dhaka's ties with Beijing will not affect friendly relation between Bangladesh and India.
He said on Tuesday that Bangladesh and China did not have a strategic relation and the relation between the two had nothing to do with Dhaka's ties with New Delhi.
The Chief of Army Staff was talking to media persons after reviewing the Passing out Parade of India's premier National Defence Academy near Pune in the country's western state of Maharashtra.
Gen Mubeen is currently on a five-day tour to India on an invitation from the chief of the Indian Army Gen V K Singh.
He was the third foreigner to take the salute of the newly passed out cadets of the prestigious institution after late Chinese premier Chou En-Lai and former chief of the then Royal Nepal Army Gen P J Thapa.
During the visit, Gen Mubeen is scheduled to interact with Indian defence minister A K Antony, national security advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and top officials of the Indian Army and the Ministry of Defence.
He will also visit Paratroopers' Training School at Agra in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. He is also likely to visit Indian Army's Eastern Command at Fort Williams in Kolkata.
An official statement from the Indian government's Ministry of Defence said that Gen Mubeen would visit important field formations of the Indian Army. "The high-level visits of both Army chiefs in 2008, 2010 and 2011 boosted our military-to-military relations," it read.
A spokesman of the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi said that military-to-military cooperation between Bangladesh and Indian armed forces encompassed exchange of high and medium level visits, availing of training courses in each other's training institutions, witnessing of designated exercises by military observers from both sides, exchange of war veterans, United Nations Peacekeeping Operation, sharing experience in disaster management, sports and adventure activities.
Gen Mubeen's visit to India is a reciprocation of a similar tour by the chief of the Indian Army last June.
He expressed hope that the visits by top military officials to each other's country would foster closer relations between the two neighbours and act as a catalytic tool for the mutual benefit of both.
Altogether 302 cadets, including 16 from Bhutan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the Maldives, graduated from the National Defence Academy of India on Tuesday. They had commenced their training on June 30, 2008.
Gen Mubeen, as the reviewing officer of the Passing out Parade, presented medals to the award winners of the autumn term of this year.
Chou En-Lai was the chief guest for the NDA's passing out parade in December 1956, and Gen P J Thapa was the chief guest in Nov 2004.
The Indian Government said that the visit would further cement India's defence relationship with Bangladesh and add impetus to ongoing defence cooperation.
"Maintenance of enhanced military-to-military contacts with Bangladesh by Indian Army is mutually beneficial to the strategic interests of both the neighbours," said the statement.
'Bangla-China ties not to affect bond with India' | World | bdnews24.com
