New Delhi, September 19, 2005 (PTI)

The Army has planned a busy schedule of joint exercises with some of the leading armies of the world as part of its newly formulated strategy of using such interaction as a diplomatic tool for pursuing national security strategies.

Thus, for the time, Indian troops will rub shoulders with Russian special forces in the deserts of Rajasthan, conduct mock assaults from the sea with French soldiers and train with Americans here and abroad. In addition, low-level exercises and joint training are planned with soldiers from Singapore, Mongolia and Uzbekistan.

`Desert Strike'

The Army will also showcase its firepower to foreign defence attaches, including for the first time a representative from China, at an exercise by a mechanised division codenamed "Desert Strike" in November. "We will let other countries know how the Indian Army operates in the deserts," said an informed source.

The joint exercises have as their basis certain tenets outlined by the Chief of Army Staff J. J. Singh to broaden the scope of defence cooperation with other countries. Army-to-army cooperation, he has instructed, must be used as a tool to increase national security. The aim would be to engage world powers and friendly nations in the immediate neighbourhood.

Cooperation cell

A defence cooperation cell in the Army headquarters has been made the nodal agency for formulating defence cooperation policy in coordination with the Defence Ministry and the Foreign Office.

In addition, there is added emphasis on joint exercises with the U.S. as the Army is regularly interacting with U.S. Special Forces, National Guards and regular troops. Although the former Army chief, S. Padmanabhan, has called the current series of India-U.S. military exercises as "low level" and "purposeless," the Army is preparing for a wide range of cooperation in keeping with the recently signed 10-year India-U.S. defence framework agreement. These include high-level interaction, company-level exercises and attending courses.

"We are the only Army to have been involved in the entire gamut of operations. Other countries want to learn minor tactics we have imbibed from our experience while we get acquainted with technically advanced equipment," said an informed source. "Most of them are training exercises. We should not see beyond that. And all these exercises take place with the U.N. as the backdrop. We hope to expand it further," he added.