Notwithstanding incursions at the line of Actual Control (lAC), including one such act by the Chinese Army in ladakh region a few days back, India and China will hold joint military training exercise in Pune for 13 days starting November 15. It will be the sixth joint exercise since both the countries decided to hold such events as a confidence building measure and the first exercise was held in 2007.
Named “Hand in Hand 2016”, the exercise will aim at honing drills to fight insurgency and terrorism. The last such exercise was held in October last year in Kunming, China. The forthcoming event is in continuation of the series of joint exercises between India and China held annually alternately in each other’s country.
The aim of the joint training is to share the expertise in drills and practices while tackling insurgency and terrorism, thereby promoting healthy military to military relations between the two Armies and developing joint strategies for conducting operations in a counter terrorism environment, officials said here on Sunday.
Forming part of the different levels of the military to military engagement across the entire spectrum of operations, this exercise will enrich the two contingents in further honing basic military skills. The exercise is planned at the company level (100 soldiers from each side) with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training. The exercise is supervised by a Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both the nations.
Exercise “Hand in Hand 2016” will be conducted in three phases. The first phase of the exercise consists of familiarisation with the weapons and equipment. Thereafter, the second phase consists of the conduct of basic training that includes Combat Conditioning, firing of personal weapon, support weapon and practice of drills like establishment of covert observation post, house clearing, cordon & search and humanitarian and disaster relief operations. The third phase of the exercise is the conduct of joint exercise. These exercises contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other’s military. The exercise will be attended by the senior military observers of both the countries, they said.
India had refused to take part in the exercise some years back after China questioned the status of Jammu & Kashmir and also issued stapled visa to residents of Arunachal Pradesh.