By IANS
New Delhi/Beijing : The Indian and Chinese armies Wednesday embarked on their first war games that are aimed at ramping their emerging military-to-military ties and are being viewed as yet another confidence building measure in the two countries’ steadily warming political and diplomatic relations.
Code-named “Hand-in-Hand”, the joint drill is being staged on an “anti-terrorism theme in an urban setting” at Kuoming in China’s Yunan province just south of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The exercise is one more sign that the two countries, who fought a bitter border war in 1962, have put the past behind them as they move ahead in their political, diplomatic, military, economic and cultures relations – and simultaneously move to resolve their vexed boundary issue.
The two armies are fielding about 100 personnel each at the exercise that will culminate in a joint operation Dec 25 to “rescue hostages who have been taken captive by terrorists in an urban environment”, Brigadier S.K. Chatterjee, the Indian Army’s deputy director general for public information, told reporters in New Delhi Wednesday.
“The exercise is aimed at building and promoting positive military relations and inter-operability, and to undertake joint operations in a counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment for global peace in the international arena,” Chatterjee added.
A Chinese military spokesman spoke in the same vein of the exercise.
“The training aims to enhance mutual understanding and mutual trust between Chinese and Indian armed forces, strengthen their exchanges in the field of anti-terrorism, deter the three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism, and promote the all-round development of the bilateral strategic partnership towards peace and prosperity,” the spokesman for the foreign affairs office of China’s defence ministry said in Beijing.
The Indian contingent comprises nine officers and 89 other ranks of the battle-hardened 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry battalion that has been actively engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the northeast and elsewhere. In addition, 12 officers will act as observers. The highest ranked among them will be Lt. Gen. Rajinder Singh, the director general (Infantry) at Army headquarters.
Giving details of the exercise, Chatterjee said it would be conducted in three phases.
“The first phase (Wednesday) comprised displays and demonstrations by the two armies of their weapons and operational techniques.
“The second phase (Thursday) will comprise basic training to get enmeshed and to operate together. The actual exercise Dec 21-25 will comprise three phases: penetration into the area where terrorists are holed up, pursuit and neutralisation (of the hostiles) and the rescue of hostages,” Chatterjee explained.
“Dec 26 would be a rest day for shopping and sight-seeing and the contingent will return home the next day,” he added.
A joint command post headed by an Indian brigadier and a Chinese senior colonel has also been established to oversee the conduct of the exercise, during which, Chinese light tanks and helicopters, small artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) will also be seen in action.
The exercise is the forerunner to a similar one to be conducted in India next year on dates that are yet to be decided.
The groundwork for the exercise was laid during then defence minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Beijing last year when the two countries inked a path-breaking memorandum of understanding (MoU) to boost their military-military ties.
The process was taken forward during then Indian Army chief Gen. J.J. Singh’s visit to Beijing in June and during a visit to the Chinese capital in October of a defence ministry delegation led by joint secretary Bimal Jhulka.
The dates were finalised in late November at a meeting between military officers of the two countries at the Indian Army’s Kolkata-based Eastern Command.