Raj: Closing ceremony of Indo-French joint military drill held in Bikaner

The closing ceremony of the joint military exercise between the armies of India and France-- 'Exercise Shakti-2019' was held at the Mahajan Field firing range here on Wednesday.

The ceremony was reviewed by Brigadier General Jean Christophe Bechon, Commandant 6th Light Armoured Brigade, French Army and Major General Inderjit Singh of India Army's south western command.

An infantry platoon group of the Sikh Regiment part of south western Command and a platoon group of the 21st Marine Infantry Regiment of 6th Armoured Brigade represented India and France respectively in the exercise, defence spokesperson Col Sombit Ghosh said.

The exercise, which had two phases, began on October 31.

"In the inter-operability phase, the contingents underwent rigorous combat conditioning and tactical training. The training received by both the armies in inter-operability phase was put into practice in the validation phase," he said in a release.

The contingents jointly took part in the validation exercise which included establishment of observation posts, cordon and search operation and house clearing drills.

Both the armies shared valuable combat experience of counter terrorists operations in an international environment under the United Nations mandate.

The biennial exercise, which is conducted alternately in India and France, began in 2011.