India-China Joint Military Training Exercise From Tomorrow

PUNE:  India-China Joint Military Training exercise, 'Hand in Hand 2016' will be held in Pune from tomorrow to November 27. The exercise is in continuation of the series of joint exercises between India and China, a Defence release issued in Pune said today. "This will be the sixth joint training exercise by the Indian Army with People's Liberation Army of China. It is held annually, alternately, in India and China," it said. The

first exercise was held in China at Kunming of Yunnan province in 2007 and the last exercise was held in October 2015 in Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan Province in China, it said.

As per the release, the aim of joint training is to share 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.

It also said 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 with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training. The exercise is supervised by a Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both the countries," the release said.

'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 the conduct of basic training which 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 is the conduct of joint exercise. The exercise will be attended by the senior military observers of both the countries, the release said.