NEW DELHI: India is yet to take a final decision on whether its troops will participate in a multi-nation counter-terrorism exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which will be held in Pakistan later this year and also include Chinese soldiers.
The joint exercise “Pabbi-Antiterror-2021” will be held at Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Centre near the Pabbi town in Nowshera district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The decision about the exercise was taken after the 36th meeting of the council of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) held at Tashkent in Uzbekistan on March 18.If India does participate in the exercise, it will be the first time that Indian soldiers will go to Pakistan for such wargames. “The matter is under consideration. The government, primarily the external affairs ministry and the National Security Council Secretariat, will take a decision on participation in the exercise,” said an official on Monday.
India, along with Kazakhstan, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, had attended the meeting of the RATS executive committee on March 18.
Last year, India had pulled out of the SCO counter-terrorism `Kavkaz’ exercise in Russia in September because Chinese as well as Pakistani troops were also slated to take part in the combat drills, as was then reported by TOI.
The decision to withdraw from the exercise had come amidst heightened tensions during the military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh after the violent clashes in Galwan Valley on June 15.
Since then, India and China have undertaken troop disengagement on both sides of the Pangong Tso, though there is still a deadlock over the other friction points at Gogra, Hot Springs, Demchok and Depsang Plains, while the overall de-escalation along the Line of Actual Control is not on the horizon yet.
India and Pakistan last month also decided to observe a fresh border ceasefire after a particularly violent 2020, with artillery and firing duels between the rival armies breaking all annual records in the last 18 years.