Sino-India Joint Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2018

• Exercise Hand-in-Hand is conducted annually as part of military diplomacy and interaction between armies of India and China.
• The exercise will involve tactical level operations in an International Counter Insurgency/Counter Terrorist environment under UN mandate.
• The conduct of Joint Military Exercises is also an important step to uphold the values of Peace, Prosperity and Stability in the region.

Objectives of the Exercise:

• To build and promote close relations between armies of both the countries.
• To enhance ability of joint exercise commander to take military contingents of both nations under command.
• To acquaint both the Armies with each other’s operating procedure in the backdrop of counter terrorism environment.

Exercise Hand-in-Hand 2018 will go a long way to further cement relationship between both the nations and will act as a catalyst in bringing bonhomie at grassroots levels between the armies of both countries.

Behind the scene:

• The last time the two armies had the joint exercise was in 2016, in Pune, but due to tensions between the two sides over Doklam due to standoff between the armies for more than 70 days, the armies skipped the ‘Hand-in-Hand’ exercise in 2017.
• Doklam is a strategically important area which is claimed by Bhutan.
• Post Doklam, both countries had been working to increase cooperation. In fact, two leaders met four times on the sidelines of the recently concluded G-20 summit in Argentina.

Source: PIB