BEIJING, Dec 20: China and India have begun a week-long anti-terrorism military drill to improve mutual trust and cooperation.

The exercise, ‘Hand-in-Hand, 2007’, being held in Yunnan province involved 100 troops from each country, state media said on Thursday.

“The aim of the joint anti-terror drill is to strengthen understanding and trust between the two countries and the two armies, and also to enhance their cooperation in the anti-terror area,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a news conference.

“Friendly cooperation between both sides is the main trend. It’s natural that there will be disagreements,” he said. “We have disputes over the border issue... but we will not let it become an obstacle to bilateral relations,” he said.

The China Daily said the exercise would be aimed at what Beijing called the ‘three evil forces’ of separatism, extremism and terrorism.—Reuters