After Defence Minister AK Antony’s high-profile visit to Malaysia last month, Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor is visiting Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines to bolster military ties as part of India’s “Look East” policy.

Kapoor, who concluded the Malaysian leg of his tour on Thursday, is heading for Manila from where he will return home on Saturday. This is the first overseas visit by the General after taking over as Chief of the Army Staff last year. “The visit is part of India’s policy of strengthening relations with countries in the region. Various aspects, including identifying areas of cooperation, will be discussed during the visit,” an Army official said.

The tour is also being seen in the context of China’s growing influence in the region and, in particular, Beijing’s “aggressive wooing” of Cambodia. Officials have termed the visit “military support to international diplomacy”.

On the anti-terror front, the two sides have agreed to “enhance bilateral exchanges” in training centres and academies after Kapoor’s visits to the Southeast Asia Regional Centre of Counter-Terrorism in Kuala Lumpur and the Malaysian “Army Combat Training Centre”.

A formula to increase military-level discussions has also been worked out during the visit. “Both sides have agreed to hold dedicated Army-to-Army Staff talks to work out specific details of expanding cooperation between the two Armies. They have also agreed to share experiences and work together in the fields of counter-terrorism, peacekeeping, disaster relief, training and maintenance of defence equipment,” an Army statement said.

Defence ties with Malaysia took off after Antony’s visit to the nation last month during which an agreement was signed to send Indian Air Force pilots and technicians to the country for training Malaysian pilots on their newly- acquired Su-30 fighters. A technical team from Malaysia is already in India and is undergoing training on maintenance and upkeep of the fighter fleet.