Post COVID-19, India gets ready to participate in the Russian Kavkaz 2020 strategic command-post exercise. All the bilateral and multilateral military exercises had been put on hold due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 and now their resumption is starting gradually.
The exercise comes at a time when the tensions between India and China are growing along the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh. China and Pakistan are also invited to participate in KavKaz 2020 as both countries are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
Who will participate from India?
According to sources, “a tri-service contingent with 150 Army personnel and from Air Force and Navy will be heading to Astrakhan in Southern Russia for the exercise.”
The exercise is scheduled for September 15-26 and there will be participation from atleast 18 countries in KavKaz 2020 including countries from Central Asian Republics who are part of SCO as well as China, Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.
While the countries which have been invited are yet to confirm their participation, according to a top diplomat, Pakistan is likely to participate.
Due to global lockdown, all the three services had put on hold all their internal drills as well as globally.
Earlier this summer, at the Victory Day Parade, Indian and Chinese military contingents marched at Red Square in Moscow. This event was to mark the 75th anniversary of World War II, and defence minister Rajnath Singh was there to represent India at the parade.
More about SCO and India’s participation in these drills
The grouping is a eight-member economic and security bloc and India and Pakistan were admitted as full members back in 2017.
The founding members of this grouping include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The grouping has been having multilateral drills and has developed Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). This structure is regarded as very important in the counterterrorism operations by the member countries and has its headquarters based in Tashkent. Security officials of all the eight countries sit at the RATS Headquarters in Tashkent.
In fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism, RATS plays a very critical role, as it gives a chance to all to test their intelligence gathering and exchange; technology complement mechanisms between the members states of SCO.
Source: FE
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