Despite tensions, India, China to hold Army drills

New Delhi: While relations between India and China have been marked by tension in recent times over a host of issues like the Nuclear Suppliers Group, a terrorist tag to Masood Azhar, founder of  UN-designated terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, to speak of the teeming boundary disputes, it is business as usual for military ties between the two Asian giants.

From November 15 to 27, in continuation of the series of joint exercises between the militaries of India and China, the “Hand in Hand 2016” exercise will be held in Aundh near Pune.

This edition will be the sixth joint training exercise by the Indian Army with People’s Liberation Army of China and is held annually, alternately, in both the countries. The first exercise was held in Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province in 2007, while the last exercise was also held in October 2015 in Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan.

“The aim is to share the expertise in drills and practices while tackling insurgency and terrorism, thereby promoting healthy military-to-military relations among the two Armies and developing joint strategies for conducting operations in a counter terrorism environment,” an Army release said. The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training. A Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both countries will supervise the exercise. The exercise ‘Hand in Hand 2016’ will be conducted in three phases. The first phase consists of familiarisation with the weapons and equipment.

The second phase consists of basic training, including combat conditioning, firing of personal weapon, support weapon and drills like establishment of covert observation post, house clearing, cordon and search, humanitarian and disaster relief operations. The third phase includes a joint exercise. It contributes in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other’s military. Senior military observers of both the countries will attend the exercise.

On October 19 too, a joint Indo-Chinese army exercise took place in eastern Ladakh, which was a sequel to an exercise on February 6 in eastern Ladakh’s Chushul Garrison. These exercises are seen as efforts complementing the ‘Hand in Hand’ series of joint exercises.