India and China will hold joint training exercise "Hand in Hand" in Pune from November 15 to 27, an official statement said.
This will be the sixth edition of the annual joint training exercise by the Indian Army with People's Liberation Army of China, held alternately in India and China.
The first exercise was held in China at Kunming of Yunnan province in 2007 and the previous installment, in October 2015, held in Kunming Military Academy at Yunnan.
"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 between the two armies and developing joint strategies for conducting operations in a counter terrorism environment.
"Forming part of the different levels of the military to military engagement across the entire spectrum of operations, this exercise will enrich the two contingents in further honing basic military skills," the statement said.
The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training.
It will be supervised by a Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both the nations.
The exercise will be conducted in three phases - the first consisting of familiarization with the weapons and equipment, the second phase of the conduct of basic training that includes combat conditioning, firing of personal weapon, support weapon and practice of drills like establishment of covert observation post, house clearing, cordon and search and humanitarian and disaster relief operations.
The third phase of the exercise is the conduct of joint exercise itself.
"Exercise Hand-in-Hand contributes immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other's military. The exercise will be attended by the senior military observers of both the countries," the statement added.
--IANS
ao/vd
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