PTI

Beijing, Jun 1: Rejecting that India's defence cooperation with the US and Japan was aimed at containing China, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that there was "enough space" for the two neighbours to develop.

"No. We do not believe in the policy of containment or balance of power because I think that there is enough space in which both China and India can develop. The efforts of India are not competitive but complementary with each other," he said in an interview to China's state-run CCTV 4 telecast.

He was asked if India's recent military agreements with the US and Japan were intended for the balancing of China.

Asked whether he was satisfied with the level of defence cooperation with China right now, the Defence Minister said: "The joint exercise which we had earlier was quite successful. We would like to expand it in more areas, the details are to be worked out in consultations with each other on mutually agreed dates."

Replying to a question when one would see the joint exercises on the ground level, he said the details would be worked out. "We now have the framework. We have in place the institution and through consultations the dates of the programme would be worked out. We have also suggested that our cooperation should be an annual event," he said.

When pressed to comment on the so-called 'China threat,' Mukherjee said: "I am afraid we do not believe in that type of phraseology."