NEW DELHI – India and China will resume their joint military drills after aone-year gap on Tuesday in the southwest Chinese city of Chengdu to improvecapabilities in fighting terrorism and promote mutual understanding,officials said on Sunday.The opening ceremony of the drills will be held onDecember 11, they said.
Each side will send 100 troops to take part in the 7th India and Chinajoint military exercises – ‘Hand in Hand’ – which will focus oncounter-terrorism operations, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Col RenGuoqiang said last month.The exercises will be held after a gap of one yearas both the sides were locked in a 73-day standoff in Doklam in the Sikkimsector of the border in 2017.
The strained relations between the two sides later improved resulting in aninformal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese PresidentXi Jinping in the Chinese city of Wuhan in April this year.
“The drill will promote understanding between the two militaries andimproving their capabilities in fighting terrorism,” Col Ren said.