This is indeed good news for 40% of humanity - desired it for many years!

October 1, 2004

Indian troops mark China festival

By PP Singh

BBC correspondent in Nagdoh, India-China border

Neither China nor India are talking hostilities anymore. For the

first time Indian soldiers have joined Chinese troops on their

shared border to mark China's national day.

Fifty Indian troops, some with their families, travelled to a remote

outpost on China's disputed Himalayan border with India's Arunachal

Pradesh state.

Indian brigadier Vikram Raghavan called Friday's celebration's

historic. Chinese troops had marked India's national day on 15

August.

India and China fought a brief border war in 1962.

About 50 Chinese military officials and soldiers, again some with

families, had travelled to the Bumla Pass, close to the Chinese

outpost, for Indian Independence Day on 15 August.

" Our relations are improving and there is no question of a war.

China and India will be friends forever " Chen Yen Hui,

Chinese senior colonel

" This was a kind of a return visit, " said Brigadier Raghavan, " a

reciprocal gesture and one that's part of our confidence-building

process along the Line of Actual Control.

" I can say the winds of change are blowing across the Himalayas and

we want to be friends. "

This correspondent was an artillery officer in the Indian army 30

years ago, gun sights trained on Nagdoh, and was now returning to

cover the celebrations north of Tawang as one of 15 attending Indian

journalists.

Neither Chinese nor Indian troops here are talking of hostilities

any more.

" Our relations are improving and there is no question of a war, "

said Senior Colonel Chen Yen Hui as he supervised the celebrations

at Nagdoh.

" China and India will be friends forever. "

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