The 8th Edition of India-Sri Lanka bilateral joint Military Exercise ‘Mitra Shakti – 2021’ was scheduled to be conducted at Combat Training School, Ampara, Sri Lanka from October 4 to 15, 2021.
Key Points:
i.Objective: To promote close relations between armies of both countries and enhance inter-operability and sharing best practices in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.
i.The duration of the exercise was about 12 days.
ii.An all-arms contingent of 120 personnel of the Indian Army is participating in the military exercise along with a battalion of the Sri Lankan Army.
iii.Tactical level operations at the sub-unit level in an international Counter Insurgency and Counter Terrorism environment will be conducted at the exercise.
iv.The counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations’ training is set in urban and rural scenarios under United Nations (UN) mandate.
About Mitra Shakti:
i.It is a military exercise that will be conducted every year as part of military diplomacy and interaction between armies of India and Sri Lanka. The exercise doesn’t take place in 2020 due to the COVID-19.
ii.The 1st edition of the exercise was conducted in India in 2013. It was designed to combine the UN peacekeeping missions.
iii.The 7th Edition of Mitra Shakti Exercise was conducted in 2019 at Foreign Training Node (FTN), Pune, Maharashtra.
Recent Related News:
Defence Officials from India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives participated in a virtual Trilateral Tabletop Exercise 2021 (TTX-2021), ‘Exercise Shield’ on Maritime Security. Exercise Shield was organized by Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai from July 14-15, 2021.
About Sri Lanka:
Capital – Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
President – Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Currency – Sri Lankan Rupee
