New Delhi: Just three days after the Supreme Court rejected his plea to reconcile his birth date in official records as May 10, 1951, Indian Army chief General V.K. Singh is all set to undertake a four-day visit to Britain from Monday, indicating that he may not quit his post.
The Indian Army's official spokesperson said in a release here Sunday that Gen. Singh will be in Britain till Feb 17 to interact with the senior British military and civilian leadership and discuss defence related bilateral relations between the two nations.
"General V.K. Singh is undertaking a four-day tour to United Kingdom from Feb 14 to 17, 2012. During his visit, the army chief will be interacting with the senior military and civilian hierarchy and will discuss various defence related issues to strengthen existing defence ties with United Kingdom," the spokesperson said .
The Indian Army chief will be visiting the Land Warfare Centre in Salisbury Plains and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
During his visit to Land Warfare Centre, he will witness the training and preparation of British Army brigade preparing for induction into Afghanistan.
The last visit by an Indian Army chief to Britian was by Gen. Deepak Kapoor in March 2008.
India shares a healthy and cordial bilateral and strategic relations with Britain that are multi-faceted and have been strengthened over the years with regular exchange of visits at political, diplomatic and military levels.
A strong bilateral relationship is of priority to both countries for economic, commercial, historical and foreign policy reasons, and the large Indian diaspora in Britain.
"The visit by the army chief will add the necessary impetus to the existing defence relationship and broad-base it into a mutually beneficial partnership," the army spokesperson said.
India's relations in the field of defence with Britain have graduated to comprehensive defence cooperation to include courses and training for United Nations peace-keeping Operations, joint training including exercise in the fields of counter-terrorism including employment of special forces, and exchange of observers on each others' army exercises.
IANS
First Published: Monday, February 13, 2012, 09:16