Singh in Tashkent, India and Uzbekistan to hold first joint military exercises
The 10 day joint exercise between Indian and Uzbekistan armies, code named Dostlik 2019, will be conducted from November 4 to 13.
Photo: PTI
By IAR Desk
The Indian Army will undertake a joint exercise with the Army of Uzbekistan for the first time, beginning from November 4th. This will following Defence Minister Rajnath Singh”s three-day visit to the Central Asian nation beginning from today, November 1.
The 10 day joint exercise between Indian and Uzbekistan armies, code named Dostlik 2019, will be conducted from November 4 to 13.
Singh traveled to Uzbekistan today to attend the two days long Council of Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) that begun today, 1st November in Tashkent.
The Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) quoted a senior Defence Ministry official as saying that “Rajnath Singh and the Uzbekistan Defence Minister Major General Kurbanov Bakhodir Nizamovich will witness a curtain raiser event of the joint exercise of the two armies. This is the first-ever joint exercise that will be undertaken by the armies of India and Uzbekistan. Singh is scheduled to travel to Russia after visiting Uzbekistan.”
Indian and Uzbek troops will train in heliborne operations, mountain craft, tactical operations and house-intervention drills.
The SCO conference is the third Council of Heads of Government meeting after India became a member of the organisation. The focus this time is on multilateral economic cooperation in the region.
“India has a long tradition of partnering with fellow nations, while pursuing our own aspirations for growth. We look forward to enrich them further through the SCO for the development and progress of our people,” Singh tweeted on his arrival in Tashkent.
In Tashkent, Singh is also scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the Uzbekistan government on November 2 and 3 and a meeting with Major General Kurbanov Bakhodir Nizamovich, Minister of Defence of Uzbekistan.
Sources said a delegation of top business honchos are scheduled to accompany Singh to Russia to explore partnerships with the country”s defence firms.
The last two CHG meetings were held in 2017 in the Russian city of Sochi and in 2018 in Tajikistan’s largest city and capital Dushanbe.
From Uzbekistan Singh will travel to Moscow to attend the Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) from Nov 5-7. He will be accompanied by a large delegation comprising representatives of the top 50 Indian private companies in the defence sector. They would be seeking to form joint ventures with their Russian counterparts. Besides, both sides will also review progress in all the ongoing projects, including the S40o missiles deal.
