India-China joint exercise at Pune military camp concludes

The sixth India-China joint training exercise 'Hand-in-Hand 2016' concluded on Friday at the Aundh military camp here, an official said.

The 13-day exercise included understanding each other's operational methodology, developing interoperability and conducting joint tactical operations controlled by a joint command post.

The exercise -- held alternatively in India and China -- concluded with a validation exercise by the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army of China.

At the closing ceremony, Major General S.K. Prashar of the Indian Army and Major General Wang Haijiang, Deputy Commander of the People's Liberation Army, jointly reviewed a parade commanded by Colonel Dayanand Sharma, the Indian contingent commander.

The first such exercise was held in 2007 at Kunming Military Academy in Yunnan province in China and the last in October 2015 also at the same venue.

"The aim of the joint training is to share the expertise in drills and practices while tackling insurgency and terrorism, thereby promoting healthy military-to-military relations and developing joint strategies for conducting operations in a counter- terrorism environment," an Army official said.

The exercise was conducted in three phases -- familiarisation with weapons and equipment; conduct of basic training including combat conditioning, firing of personal weapons, support weapons and practice of drills like establishment of covert observation post, house clearing, cordon and search and humanitarian and disaster relief operations.

The third phase comprised conduct of joint exercise.

--IANS

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