India's top military set up special teams to monitor its disputed border with China, which is monitoring the new alliance between India and Japan, especially in defence. Meanwhile, Islamabad pushes for the economic corridor with China.

New Delhi (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Indian army has set up three special groups to keep tabs on China, the Hindustan Times, a New Delhi-based daily, reported on Monday, citing military sources, anonymous for security reasons.

The aim is to monitor Beijing's military capabilities, strategic international relations (particularly with Pakistan), soft power capabilities and economic reforms.

General Bikram Singh, Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, is the brain behind the project.

The three China cells will operate in northern, central and eastern India, close to the areas disputed between the two nations.

The eastern group based in Kolkata (West Bengal) will have six officers. The northern group based in Udhampur (Jammu and Kashmir) will have three officers. The same goes for the central one, which is located in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh).

The creation of special groups follows a meeting held last week in New Delhi between China's State Councillor Yang Jiechi and India's National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon.

The meeting bore no results, but the two officials discussed the long border dispute between their respective countries.

China claims more than 90,000 km² in the eastern Himalayas, whilst India accuses Beijing of occupying 38,000 km² of its territory on the Aksai Chin plateau.

Meanwhile, Beijing continues to monitor carefully Indo-Japanese relations. Ni Lengxiong, a Shanghai-based military diplomacy expert, noted that Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was a guest of honour at India's Republic Day parade.

In early February, the Japanese prime minister returned to New Delhi to discuss defence cooperation, including the sale of a Japanese-made amphibious aircraft.

This agreement made India the first country in the world to buy a military aircraft from Tokyo since the Second World War.

Also, Pakistan's new president Himari Hussain arrived in China today, an event that has not gone unnoticed. This is his first state visit to Pakistan's largest trading partner.

The president said that he would push for an earlier realisation of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, a project of great geopolitical importance to Beijing.

It would provide China with a shorter route to import crude oil from the Middle East, and send its exports to the region.

• india
• china
• pakistan
• himalaya
• special
• military
• monitoring
• groups