City set to host joint military exercise with Bimstec countries

The training is being supervised by a joint directing panel comprising senior officials of the national contingents.

As a part of the Bay of Bengal initiative for multi-sectoral technical and economic cooperation (Bimstec), a field training military exercise (MILEX-18) will be held at Aundh from September 10.

Lt general DR Soni, army commander, Southern Command. (HT Photo)

Lieutenant general DR Soni, army commander, Southern Command, while giving more information about the event, said, “The field training military exercise called MILEX-18 is being organised for the first time in Bimstec and Pune has got the opportunity to host this event. The core theme of this military exercise is counter terrorism in a semi-urban backdrop. Platoon sized contingents of the national armies of the Bimstec nations will participate in this week-long training exercise. Five officers and 25 junior commissioned officers (JCOs) plus other ranks of all member countries will be participating at the foreign training node at Aundh.”

The training is being supervised by a joint directing panel comprising senior officials of the national contingents.

“In addition to the military exercise, on initiative of our chief of the army staff, General Bipin Rawat, an inaugural ‘Chiefs’ Conclave’ is also being organised at the College of Military Engineering, Kirkee, on September 15, under the aegis of Headquarters Southern Command. The chiefs of the army of the member nations of Bimstec will be attending the conclave. G Parthasarthy, former Indian diplomat would be the moderator for the chiefs’ conclave,” added Lt Gen Soni.

Dr Subhash Bhambre, minister of state for defence will be witnessing the validation exercise along with the service chiefs on September 16.

What is Bimstec?

Bimstec is a seven nation forum comprising India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka , Myanmar and Thailand. The first summit of Bimstec was held in 2004 in Bangkok. The main objective of Bimstec forum is technological and economic cooperation among the south Asian and south-east Asian countries along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Starting with six sectors - trade, technology, energy, transport, tourism and fisheries for sectoral cooperation in late 1997, the forum expanded to embrace eight more sectors which included counter terrorism, agriculture, public health, poverty alleviation, environment, culture, people to people contact and climate change in 2008.

Our team is ready for any natural disaster, says Lt Gen Soni

The troops of Southern Command played a vital role in saving the lives of 12,500 citizens during the rescue and relief operations in the flood-hit areas in Kerala.

Speaking about the mission, Lt Gen DR Soni, said, “Our commanders keep monitoring the natural disaster prone areas. We have a set procedure, and teams are ready within a short period. To enhance these units, we have provided them with satellite phones. Observation is difficult at some places, so we have already started using drones to locate the disaster victims.”

“Our main target is to rescue civilians and we decided to include a medical person on the team, so that the injured can get immediate medical attention,” he said.

As per the Southern Command sources, a total of 10 columns and 13 engineer task force formed about 70 teams and carried out continuous rescue and relief operations in the area. They approximately constructed and repaired 26 temporary bridges and cleared 50 roads. Along with this, a total of almost 12,500 people stranded in various parts of Kerala were rescued by the troops of the Southern Command.

“Our boys did a fantastic job. They didn’t change their wet clothes for 10 days. Interestingly, a large number of our boys, who were in the rescue teams, had their families in the flood-affected areas. But no one asked for leave and did their job. I have no words to express their commitment and selfless work,” Soni said.

“Right now we are also a part of the rehabilitation process. Two teams are there to help the state. We will withdraw in couple of weeks, as the state teams will take over. But we are happy that we were able to assist when it was most required. It was our duty,” he added.