Indian and the Chinese Army (PLA) are working together to build confidence and mutual trust. Both nations are geared up to participate in the eighth edition military drills which will be held in December this year in Meghalaya.
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The military drill between the two countries according to North East Now, was resumed last year post a freeze over the Doklam stand-off. The joint military exercise “Hand-in-Hand” will be held at Umroi near Shillong in Meghalaya.
The last exercise, which was the seventh edition, was held at Chengdu in December 2018. In Umroi, the two forces will focus on counter-terror operations, the establishment of the joint command post and joint combat.
The hand-in-hand joint exercise was started in 2007 in Kunming but was halted after the Chinese troops came to Belgaum in Karnataka for the second edition. The drills resumed only five years later in 2013 as New Delhi and Beijing had halted their defence ties because of a visa row.
After the 6th edition in Pune in 2016, the drills again got hindered because of a 73-day stand-off between Indian and Chinese forces in Doklam where the troops from both sides came face to face.
The situation eased last year and the troops of the two sides interacted once again in China and videos of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers dancing with their Indian counterpart also went viral.
