Karnataka - Belgaum   

Joint military exercise with Maldives ends

Honing skills: A soldier of teh Maldivian National Defence Force during a mock drill during the Indo-Maldivian Joint Military Exercise in Belgaum on Friday.

Belgaum: Maldivian Defence Minister Ameen Faisal described the joint military exercise between Maldives and India, which concluded here on Friday, as a major step towards intensifying defence cooperation between the two nations.

In a brief chat while witnessing the mock drill on the concluding function at the Rohideshwar camp of Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre( MLIRC), near here, where the curtains came down on the 13-day “EKUVERIN-09” (Exercise Lightening Strike), he thanked Indian government for facilitating the joint exercise with the small island nation, which had no variety of terrain and training facilities as available in India.

The significance of the present exercise was the fact that it was the maiden venture of the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) outside their country for a joint exercise and such and international exposure and training.

Apart from Mr. Faisal, GOC-in-C Southern Command Lt. Gen. Pradeep Khanna, Commandant of MLIRC Brigadier Sanjay Holey, Male Regional Commander and Marine Core Commandant Brig. General Ahmed Shiyam and other senior officials of the Indian Army witnessed the proceedings.

The platoon-level training, which comprised three stages, namely familiarisation; training in search operations, ambush, special techniques of commandos, road opening and convoy protection and night navigation followed by cordon, search and destroy operations, has been described as “highly successful” in sharing expertise in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.

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