Staff Reporter
India has decided to pull out from multilateral Military Exercise Kavkaz 2020 to be held in Russia next month. Defence Ministry said, Russia and India are close and privileged strategic partners and at Russia’s invitation India has been participating in many international events.
However, in view of Pandemic and consequent difficulties in exercise, including arrangements of logistics, India has decided not to send a contingent this year to Kavkaz-2020. The Ministry said, the decision has been conveyed to the Russian side.
India had earlier planned to send around 150 Indian Army troops, 45 Indian Air Force personnel and a number of Navy officers to the multilateral military exercise to be held in the Astrakhan region in southern Russia from 15th to 26th September.
“It has been decided that it would be incorrect for our troops to take part in an exercise where People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers will also be present, even if it is a multilateral drill,” TOI quoted a senior officer on Saturday.
“PLA soldiers, after all, crossed all red-lines by brutally attacking our soldiers in the premeditated attack in Galwan Valley on June 15 (20 Indian and an undisclosed number of Chinese soldiers were killed in the skirmish). It cannot be business as usual with the PLA,” he added.
Both China and Pakistan are going to be a part of the multinational exercise.
India and China had clashed in the Galwan valley on June 15 in which 20 Indian troops had lost their lives while the Chinese also suffered a number of casualties with scores of Chinese soldiers killed and injured there.
India and China have been engaged in a territorial conflict in Eastern Ladakh and Sub Sector North (Ladakh) where Chinese troops have transgressed into multiple areas and are refusing to completely disengage in areas such as Finger, Depsang Plains and Gogra heights. Both sides have amassed over 40,000 troops on their respective side of the LAC with the induction of heavy weaponry including long-range artillery and tanks.