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India to set up IT lab in Indonesia

SINGAPORE: India will help set up an Information Technology Lab at Indonesia’s Military Academy and participate in a defence exercise, “Garuda Shield”, for United Nations peace support operations.

These and other professional issues figured during Army Chief Deepak Kapoor’s official visit to Indonesia last week. Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono had told The Hindu some time ago that his country would like to draw upon India’s IT-related expertise in “network-centric warfare”. However, it is not clear whether the IT lab will focus on this aspect. The facility has an army-to-army dimension.

On “Garuda Shield,” India’s Ambassador to Indonesia Biren Nanda told The Hindu over telephone from Jakarta that the multinational exercise would take place in Bandung in June. India, the U.S., and Indonesia would be among the key participants. Designed to enhance the peace-keeping skills of infantry units, the exercise would cover command post requirements and field operations.

India’s increasing military exchanges and training links with Indonesia were now governed by the bilateral defence cooperation pact of 2001, as ratified by Jakarta in 2007. Mr. Nanda said counter-terror cooperation was being promoted under the rubric of a foreign-offices-led mechanism. India and Indonesia were also engaged in “coordinated naval patrolling” for maritime security, he emphasised.

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