All You Need To Know About ‘Hand In Hand, 2015’-The Indo-China Joint Military Exercise. Hello, Warriors! With the frequent troop face-offs along the Line of Actual Control, India and China are now all set to conduct another bilateral “Hand-in-Hand” (HiH) military exercise as a confidence-building measure between the world’s largest and second-largest armies. This comes soon after the two armies operationalised their fifth border personnel meeting (BPM) point at Daulat Beg Oldi last month.
With the ongoing military exercise scheduled to end on October 23, here’s what you need to know about Hand-in-Hand, 2015:
- The joint exercise between India and China, named ‘Hand-in-Hand 2015’, commenced at Kunming Military Academy, Yunnan Province of China on October 12 and will continue till October 23.
- The Hand-in-Hand 2015 counter-terrorism drill, involves 175 soldiers from the Indian Army’s Naga Regiment of the Eastern Command and 144 military personnel from China’s Chengdu Military Area Command.
- Started in 2007, this is the fifth version of the annual bilateral exercise between India and China. The last version of Hand-in-Hand was held at Pune in India.
- The exercise is designed to bridge the “trust deficit” between the two armies ranged against each other along the 4,057-km LAC.
- The twelve-day exercise will lay emphasis on joint handling of insurgency at sub-unit level and related issues, while the aspect of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief will be discussed at formation headquarters level.
- This exercise will strengthen and broaden interoperability & cooperation between both the Armies as well as complement a number of other exchanges between the two forces.
- The opening ceremony commenced with an impressive parade by both contingents wherein national flags of both countries were brought on parade, followed by national anthem of both countries. The combined parade was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Ruchir Pant of Indian Army.
- Lieutenant General Surinder Singh is the head of the Indian Observer Delegation for the exercise.
- A weapon and equipment display was organized to familiarise with each others weapon systems at sub unit level. This was followed by a demonstration of skills by the Indian contingent, which enthralled the audience with a spectacular display of yoga training, energetic tribal dances of Nagaland and unarmed combat skills.
- The Chinese contingent displayed combat shooting and obstacle negotiation skills within the Military Academy premises.
The exercise Hand-in-Hand-2015 will contribute immensely in developing mutual understanding and respect for each other’s military as also facilitate in tackling the world wide phenomenon of terrorism. It would expand the scope of military interaction, facilitate exchange of best practices in counter-terrorism operations, enhance mutual understanding and trust and further promote friendly relationship between both militaries.
