China's official Global Times on February 26, 2018 reacted sharply to India's 'Milan' Navy Exercises in which 16 nations are participating saying they will "inflame tensions with China, expand potential conflict from land to sea" and has prompted "Chinese observers to warn that Sino-Indian tensions are spreading from the land to the sea and that China should prepare a military response". It quoted Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, as saying "The India-led 2018 Milan exercise will have a larger scale than ever. India is provoking China, which will not benefit the development of Sino-Indian relations. Now it's possible that the conflict between China and India will extend beyond land to the sea." He added China should "also be prepared for a military response at the same time to any unreasonable provocation." Zhao Gancheng, Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, said "The theme of the event has been turning sour. It has lost its original intention and is more likely to make China into a target, and that is making trouble out of nothing." Citing Indian media reports of India launching its intercontinental ballistic missile Agni-V, which can "reach the northernmost parts of China with its strike range of over 5,000 kilometers" in January and a month later, the nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile was tested in the eastern state of Odisha, Zhao Gancheng suggested China should seek dialogue between top leaders of both countries to resolve sensitive issues.
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