India-China diplomatic row: Military delegation reduced to 15, to leave for Beijing on Sunday

New Delhi:? A 30 member Indian Military delegation scheduled to visit Beijing has been downsized by half, after China refused to grant a visa to a senior Indian Air Force officer from Arunachal Pradesh. Air Force Group Captain M Panging has been left out of the delegation along with 14 others. The delegation will leave for China on Sunday.

China had, however, not shared the reasons for Captain Paning's visa being rejected.

The Indian delegation had planned a four-day trip to Beijing under a bilateral defence exchange programme. The 30 representatives of the Army, Navy and Air Force were to spend time in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai. The visit was reciprocal to the one undertaken by the Chinese last month and is part of the confidence building measures between the two countries.

Relations between India and China dipped in 2010 when the then Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General B S Jaswal was denied a visa as he was serving in Jammu and Kashmir, inferring that China questioned the status of the state. General Jaswal was to head a military delegation and an angry India cancelled that visit, besides putting on hold defence exchanges.

The ice was broken when India sent a delegation under a Major General in June last year. After that visit, two more visits took place between the two sides.

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