India-China joint exercise on counter-terrorism from Dec 7

The eighth India-China joint training exercise - 'Hand-in-Hand 2019' - would commence from December 7 at Umroi in Meghalaya, a defence official said.

The two-week-long exercise is scheduled to focus on joint planning and counter-terrorist operations on semi-urban terrain, the official said here on Monday.

A Chinese contingent from the Tibet Military command, comprising 130 personnel, and a Indian contingent of similar strength will participate in the exercise, which has counter- terrorism as theme as per the United Nations mandate.

The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training.

Two tactical exercises scheduled during the training are - counter-terrorism scenario and humanitarian and disaster relief operations - the defence official said.

The mandate of the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force (CTITF), established by the UN Secretary-General in 2005, was to strengthen coordination and coherence of counter-terrorism efforts of the United Nations system, according to the UN Office of counter-terrorism's website.

"The exercise is scheduled to focus on training through lectures and drills associated with counter-terrorist handling and firing with each other's weapons, battle obstacles course and special heliborne operations carried out in counter-terrorist environment," the official added.