July 04, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 29, 1429

NEW DELHI, July 3: India needs to be wary of a rapidly modernising Chinese military as it could affect the country’s security in the long run, India’s army chief said on Thursday.

The world’s two most populous nations are forging new ties amid soaring trade and business links, though serious differences over their Himalayan border, the cause of a 1962 war, fester.

India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China.

“We need to take note of likely implications of China’s military modernisation, improvement of infrastructure in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which could impact our security in the long-term,” General Deepak Kapoor said in New Delhi.

Although India and China have signed a treaty to maintain “peace and tranquility” along the disputed frontier and agreed to find a political solution to the row, talks over a 3,500-km disputed frontier have hardly made progress.

Kapoor said growing trade ties augured well for both countries and there was peace along the border.—Reuters