India plans joint exercises with foreign armies
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, Sept 19, IRNA
India-Army
The Indian Army has planned a busy schedule of joint exercises with some of the leading armies of the world as part of its newly formulated strategy of using such interaction as a diplomatic tool for pursuing national security strategies, reports 'The Hindu'.
Thus, for the time, Indian troops will rub soldiers with Russian special forces in the deserts of Rajasthan, conduct mock assaults from the sea with French soldiers and train with Americans here and abroad.
In addition, low-level exercises and joint training are planned with soldiers from Singapore, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.
The Indian Army will also showcase its firepower to foreign defence attaches, including for the first time a representative from hina, at an exercise by a mechanized division code-named "Desert Strike" in November. "We will let other countries know how the Indian Army operates in the deserts," said an informed source.
The joint exercises have as their basis certain tenets outlined by the Chief of Army Staff Gen. J.J. Singh to broaden the scope of defence cooperation with other countries. Army-to-army cooperation, he has instructed, must be used as a tool to increase national security.
The aim would be to engage world powers and friendly nations in the immediate neighborhood. A defence cooperation cell in the Army headquarters has been made the nodal agency for formulating defence cooperation policy in accordance with the Defence Ministry and the Foreign Office. In addition, there is added emphasis on joint exercises with the US as the joint exercises with the US as the Army is regularly interacting with US Special Forces, National Guards and regular troops.
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