Exercise on China border annual feature: Indian Army

Amid reports about Chinese objections over wargames codenamed -- Him Vijay, Indian Army sources on Saturday said the exercise is an annual feature where troops familiarise themselves with the area of operations.

The Army's response to the exercise has come before the scheduled visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India for a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later next week.

"Fighting formations undertake familiarisation and acclimatisation during the months preceding winters and post-winters. Similar training exercises for all formations of Eastern Command have been undertaken," Army sources said when asked about the exercise -- Him Vijay.

Sources said that as the 17 Mountain Strike Corps, which is carrying out Exercise Him Vijay, "is a new raising, not yet fully formed, its troops conduct familiarisation and orientation drills in depth areas which are generally in the high altitude as a matter of routine."

"Troops carry out acclimatisation process to train for high attitude regularly," they said.

As per reports, China has expressed concern over the Indian plans on the eastern front as one exercise was recently held in Ladakh. 'Him Vijay' will be the first wargame on the eastern front where troops will carry out drills to fight wars at such high altitudes.