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| India-Pakistan |
| Indian Army to help train Thai troops |
| 2007-08-17 |
| Thailand will be sending an army contingent to India take tips from the Indian Army on fighting The exercise, called "Maitree" - meaning "friendship" in both Hindi and Thai - is the first of its kind between the two armies and planned for early September under a bilateral treaty on security cooperation. In a joint statement issued during Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont's visit to India in June, the two countries resolved to strengthen bilateral cooperation and combat terrorism. Both sides said terrorism constituted one of the most serious threats to international peace and security. Security analysts told the Hindustan Times that such military collaboration forms a crucial component of India's "Look East" policy under which it seeks to consolidate ties with its fast-growing eastern neighbours. "India is aggressively establishing its credentials in the military sphere with Asean countries," Uday Bhaskar, former director of Delhi-based Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses told the newspaper. "New Delhi is following a bilateral approach to expand defence ties - and not under the Asean Regional Forum banner - as these nations have a lot of internal sensitivities," he added. India has also established maritime cooperation with a number of Asean members including Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and the Philippines. In the past few years, a number of countries including the United States have been conducting military exercises with India to pick up tips in fighting insurgency. US Marines are due to conduct joint exercises at the Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in India's north-eastern state of Mizoram next month. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #1 Any "encounter special_ists" in the Indian Army? |
| Posted by: ed 2007-08-17 15:39 |