The Hindu : National : War games with Russia, China likely

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Sunday, Jun 24, 2007
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War games with Russia, China likely

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Senior Indian Army officers will meet their Russian and Chinese counterparts next month to plan for bilateral war games later this year, Army sources said.

This will be the first time that Indian soldiers will practice manoeuvres on Russian and Chinese soil.

“The planning conferences will be held in the expectation that the exercises will take place in September-October. They will be company-level exercises in all probability and the meetings will decide the final dates. The backdrop will be counter-terrorism,” they said.

Interestingly, the Army’s joint exercises would be preceded by a bigger interaction between Russia and China along with three Central Asian countries with the same counter-terrorism backdrop.

The decision to exercise jointly with China was clinched during the Chief of the Army Staff Gen. J.J. Singh’s visit to Beijing.

Earlier, Army officers were invited by China to see military exercises and Chinese officers witnessed exercises by the Army and the Air Force.

The navies of both countries had already held joint manoeuvres, including one recently in the South China Sea.

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