中印达成防务合作协议

Longtime regional competitors China and India have agreed to strengthen defense cooperation along their disputed, and sometimes tense, Himalayan border.

The confidence building agreement was signed Wednesday in Beijing following a meeting by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

Prime Minister Singh said the defense cooperation pact will help ensure the India-China relationship is not further strained by the decades-old border dispute, which flared up in April.

In April, India accused Chinese troops of setting up a camp that was at least 10 kilometers inside territory claimed by India. China denied that troops had crossed into Indian territory.