The exercise, ‘Hand in Hand 2016’, will be held in Pune between November 15 and 27. Express Archive The exercise, ‘Hand in Hand 2016’, will be held in Pune between November 15 and 27. Express Archive

THE INDIA-CHINA Joint Training Exercise, “Hand in Hand 2016” will be held in Pune from November 15 to 27. The exercise continues a series of joint exercises between the two neighbours. This will be the sixth such exercise by the Indian Army with the People’s Liberation Army of China, and is part of a series held annually and alternately in India and China.

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The first exercise was held in China at Kunming of Yunnan province in the year 2007. The last exercise was also held at the same place beginning October 15.

The Defence PRO said the aim of the joint training is to share 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.

The exercise is planned at the company level with respective battalion headquarters controlling the training. It is supervised by a Joint Directing Panel comprising senior officials of both nations.

Exercise Hand in Hand 2016 will be conducted in three phases. The first phase of the exercise consists of familiarization with the weapons and equipment. The second phase conducts basic training that includes combat conditioning, firing of personal weapons and support weapons. This phase also includes practice of drills like establishing covert observation posts, house clearing, and cordon and search, humanitarian and disaster relief operations.

The third phase of the exercise is the conduct of joint operations. The exercise will be attended by senior military observers of both the countries, a press release said.

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