New Delhi: The 3rd edition of the Vietnam-India bilateral army exercise is scheduled to be conducted at Chandimandir from 1 to 20 August, the Ministry of Defence said on Sunday. Both the countries share a comprehensive strategic partnership and defense cooperation is a key pillar of this partnership.
Vietnam is an important partner in India’s Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision. The ministry in a statement said that the exercise is a sequel to a previously conducted bilateral exercise in Vietnam in 2019 and a major milestone in strengthening the bilateral relations between India and Vietnam.
India has a rich legacy of deployment of troops in United Nations missions and has some of the best capacities to impart United Nations peace operations training incorporating best practices and hands-on training to prospective United Nations peacekeepers at tactical, operational, and strategic levels.
The theme of the exercise is the employment and deployment of an engineering company and a medical team as part of the United Nations contingent for peace-keeping operations. The conduct of the exercise as a field training exercise with enhanced scope from previous editions of bilateral exercises will strengthen confidence, and inter-operability and enable sharing of best practices between the Indian Army and Vietnam People’s Army.
A 48 hours validation exercise is part of the schedule to assess the standards achieved by both contingents while executing technical military operations under similar scenarios in the UN missions.
The joint exercise will also provide an opportunity for the troops of both contingents to learn about the social and cultural heritage of each other. The Indian Army is represented by troops from the 105 Engineer Regiment.
(Vinayak)
