India, Russia prepare to jointly fight terror in future

With terrorism spreading its tentacles globally, India and Russia are getting ready to wage battles as "allies" against future threats, even as their armies concluded a major joint military exercise in Chaubattia.

With terrorism spreading its tentacles globally, India and Russia are getting ready to wage battles as "allies" against future threats, even as their armies concluded a major joint military exercise in Chaubattia on Saturday.

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Exercise Indra-2010 -- held in a counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency operations backdrop in a mountainous terrain -- witnessed participation from 250-strong Russian infantry troops and an equal number from an Indian battalion, who practiced 'cordon, search and destroy' operations and elimination of terror groups and leadership.

"Yes, certainly," Russian Federation Ambassador to India Alexander M Kadakin, who witnessed the exercise in Chaubattia, told reporters when asked if he envisaged future joint operations against terrorists around the globe.

"The two countries have been fighting against global terrorism. We are not just friends, but allies too. India and Russia know well about it (terrorism), not from a bird's eye view, but as nations that have faced it practically on the ground. So we consider this exercise very significant," Kadakin said.

Emphasising the importance of the exercise, he said during the talks between Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and his Indian counterpart A K Antony during his visit to New Delhi this joint army drill was highlighted as an example of growing military-to-military relations between the two countries.