India cancels all defence exchanges with China

India has suspended defence exchanges with China after Beijing refused a visa to an Indian army general from the disputed Kashmir region, local media said on Friday.

A government source said the Indian government would issue a statement later on Friday over the issue.                                            

Last year, India protested against a Chinese embassy policy of issuing different visas to residents of Indian Kashmir, one of a series of low-level disputes between the Asian giants.                                            

New Delhi bristles at any hint that Kashmir is not part of India, which has for two decades grappled with a separatist insurgency in the state that has killed tens of thousands and fuelled tensions with nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.                                            

While trade between India and China has flourished, mistrust remains, especially over the disputed Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh and the government policy of allowing the exiled Dalai Lama to live in India.  

India and China fought a brief but bloody border war, partly over Arunachal Pradesh, in 1962.