12-day mega military exercise by India, Sri Lanka to begin on Monday

COLOMBO (News 1st); The 8^th Edition of India Sri Lanka bilateral joint Exercise 'Mitra Shakti' will be conducted at Combat Training School, Ampara for 12 days. Accordingly, India and Sri Lanka will carry out the mega military exercise with a focus on enhancing counter-terror cooperation. The Indian Defense Ministry stated that the eighth edition of the 'Mitra Shakti' exercise will be conducted from October 4 to 15. "The aim of the exercise is to promote close relations between armies of both countries and enhance inter-operability and sharing best practices in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations," it said. The ministry said an all arms contingent of 120 personnel of the Indian Army will participate in the exercise along with a battalion-strength contingent of the Sri Lankan Army. "The exercise will involve tactical level operations at sub-unit level in an international counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment," it said in a statement. The ministry said that the exercise will go a long way in further strengthening the relationship between both the South Asian nations and will act as a catalyst in bringing synergy and cooperation at the grass-root level between both armies. The seventh edition of the 'Mitra Shakti' exercise was conducted at Foreign Training Node (FTN) in Pune in 2019.