New Delhi: Indian and Chinese military will hold a joint exercise in Shillong in December as a part of confidence-building measure between the two countries.
It will be a two-week exercise which will be focusing on counter-terrorism operations, human assistance and disaster management. The exercise called “Hand-in Hand” is held annually.
However, the exercise was not held in 2017 as both the Armies were locked in a 73-day stand-off at Doklam in Sikkim sector.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, in April 2018, had held an informal summit at Wuhan to improve relations between the two countries. Thereafter, the exercise was resumed in December 2018, which was held in Chinese city of Chengdu.
It will be a company-level exercise, where around 120 troops from each side will be participating. Earlier these exercises were platoon-level and were later on up-graded to company-level. The bilateral military exercise between India and the USA are of battalion-level.
The complete plan of the drill will be chalked out in August in a planning conference. Last year company-size contingents of 11 SIKHLI from the Indian Army and a regiment from Tibetan Military District of People’s Liberation Army had participated in the exercise.
