China and India hold first drill since 2017 border military standoff

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China and India hold first drill since 2017 border military standoff

China and India are holding their first joint military exercises since last year’s border standoff in Doklam.

Code-named “Hand-in-Hand 2018,” the military training aims to strengthen the counter-terrorism capabilities of the two armies.

CGTN’s Su Xiaoxiao reports.

During the two-week drill in Chengdu, troops from both China and India will take part in basic training, establish a unified anti-terrorism command and conduct live-fire anti-terrorism operations.

Wang Weijun, a commanding officer from the Chinese military told CGTN that through this joint training, the Chinese side can learn good training methods from India, On the other hand, the drill will also promote mutual trust between the two armies and bring military exchanges and cooperation to a higher level.

Meanwhile, Indian commanding officer Puneet Pratap Singh Tomar, said both armies are very professional. By these exchanges and such exercises, both sides can achieve a lot of synergies and increase the friendship.

This is the first military cooperation since a border standoff last year, when Indian soldiers blocked China’s road construction in the Doklam region, known as the “Dong Lang” region in China.

Later, the incident escalated to a military standoff.

The border tension lasted for more than two months and ended when the Indian army withdrew their troops in August just before Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indian counterpart’s met at the BRICS summit in Xiamen, Fujian.

In April 2018, the two leaders held an informal meeting in Wuhan City in central China.

Both leaders agreed to leave the border talks to the two militaries.

In November, both sides held their 21st border issues meeting in Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

China and India reached consensus to jointly maintain border peace before they solve their territorial disputes.


Srinivasan Sitaraman discusses China and India holding military drills discusses China and India holding military drills

CGTN’s Mike Walter spoke with Srinivasan Sitaraman discusses China and India holding military drills who is part of the Asian Studies program at Clark University in the U.S. State of Massachusetts about China and India relations.