Updated: August 29, 2020 8:13:12 pm
The Indian contingent had previously planned to include a company-level force of approximately 180 soldiers from an infantry battalion, 40 Air Force personnel and two Navy officers as observers for Exercise Kavkaz. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PRAVEEN KHANNA
India on Saturday rejected Russia’s invitation to participate in next month’s multilateral defense exercise, which is scheduled to take place in southern Russia on Sept. 15-27.
In the response communicated to Russia, New Delhi cited Covid-19 as the official reason for skipping the ‘Exercise Kavkaz 2020’. However, The Indian Express learned that the Chinese presence was a major factor in withdrawing from the event.
The move comes in the context of a border clash with China in eastern Ladakh, which has been going on for the past three and a half months.
While China is known to have confirmed its participation, Pakistan is likely to send its troops for the exercise as well. In total, 13,000 troops will participate in the exercise, defense system sources said.
India had previously planned to send a company-level force of approximately 180 soldiers of an infantry battalion, 40 personnel of the Air Force and two officers of the Navy as observers.
In 2018, Exercise Vostok had the participation of China and Mongolia. The Tsentr exercise last year featured the participation of India, Pakistan and all member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
India had participated in the SCO peacekeeping exercise in 2018, and in 2019, for the first time, participated in a strategic command and personnel exercise as part of Exercise Tsentr.
The aim of the exercise is “to provide real-time training to counter international terrorism in the North and Caucasus region,” and the scenario “will involve both offensive and defensive operations against international terrorism,” the source said.
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