BEIJING: Terming the past standoffs at the India-China border as "accidental confrontations", an article in a state-run Chinese daily today blamed the western media for unfairly targeting their joint military exercise by focussing on the border tensions."As always, Western public opinion is paying close attention to the Sino-Indian military ties, as well as the impact of the Sino-Indian border disputes on Asian geopolitics," the article in Global Times said.The article came as India and China today kicked off joint military exercise in Kunming, Yunnan Province."Given a series of military confrontations between the two nations near the line of actual control, foreign media expressed surprise toward the joint drill, as if the time is not yet mature for Beijing and New Delhi to conduct such an exercise," the article written by Wang Dehua, Director of the state-run Shanghai Municipal Centre for International Studies said."In my view, a joint military exercise is a barometer of bilateral relationships. As a new measure of establishing mutual trust, there is no point in making a fuss over the drill. Confrontations in recent years were not created on purpose, but happened by accident. Leaders from both China and India have consensus and enough means to take divergences under control," the article said."Western media tend to view these issues with coloured glasses, and therefore often misread the accidental confrontations on the borders," it said.Highlighting that not a bullet was fired along the borders for a long time, it said "according to Western commentaries, despite the fact that no gunfire took place near the line of actual control over the past decades, India's defence sector is still vigilant about the Chinese military's rapid modernisation.""Moreover, the growing presence of Chinese nuclear submarines and conventional submarines in the Indian Ocean is intensifying New Delhi's anxiety," it said."There is no need to be astonished over the joint drill, for the idea of peaceful coexistence has already been deeply rooted among people from both China and India."Both China and India have agreed to enhance their military cooperation, and to boost people-to-people exchanges. New Delhi has also suggested bilateral cooperation in anti-terrorism, combating smuggling by sea and anti-piracy operations. Joint military drills will surely promote bilateral collaboration," it said."China and India, as the two nations with the largest population, are facing the same task of development, and are in urgent need of a peaceful, stable market both inside and outside their countries, it said.