The Hindu : Indo-U.S. joint military exercises soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 05, 2002

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Indo-U.S. joint military exercises soon

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 4 . Signalling intensification of military ties, special forces of the Indian Army will conduct joint exercises with their American counterparts towards the middle of this month. The exercises, to be held in Agra, will involve an Indian para-brigade, IAF aircraft, special forces from the U.S. and C-130 aircraft.

The groundwork for the first of a series of drills to achieve cohesion was done by the Indo-U.S. intra-army executive steering group which met for the first time in five years in February this year. ESGs for all the three services were formed last year and have met once to execute the political executives' desire of achieving inter-operability between the armed forces of the two countries.

The joint exercises are being carried out to enable the armed forces carry out joint patrolling of Malacca Straits and `peace keeping operations' in future. The ESGs have also discussed closer ties in the areas of counter-terrorism, intelligence and disaster management.

The two navies have also finalised plans for joint exercises by deciding to revive the `Malabar' series, suspended since the Pokhran tests in 1998.

The importance accorded to ESGs is indicated from the fact that the inter-army ESG which took the decision for the Agra exercise was led by senior officers -- Director General Military Operations, S. S. Chahal, and Commander of the American army contingent in the U.S. Pacific Command, James Campbell. A further impetus to military ties is expected later this month when the two sides will hold discussions in Washington. Called the joint Defence Policy Group (DPG), it is the highest structure for promoting closer military ties. The first DPG meeting took place in November last and was headed by top civilians of the two Defence Ministries.

Meanwhile, the army began its annual corps-level exercises in Rajasthan The exercises have been kept at a low key for a number of reasons. One, no major movement from the bases was involved because the forces along with their equipment, including artillery and tanks, are already deployed in forward positions since the end of December last.

Second, the exercises customarily take place at this time of the year.

Due to the strained relations with Pakistan, the armed forces would not like to give wrong signals by publicising the manoeuvres.

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