Amid border tension, India and China to attend military exercise hosted by Russia

New Delhi

While border tension remains on a knife's edge between India and China, both countries are expected to take part in Vostok (East) 2022 multi-nation military exercise scheduled to take place in Russia later this month. 

This will be the first major such exercise to take place since Russia invaded Ukraine. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, the exercise will take place on 13 training grounds from August 30 to September 5 in the eastern military district of the country. 

Apart from India and China, troops from Belarus, Mongolia and Tajikistan will also participate in the drills. However, it is not clear if the Indian and Chinese contingents will square off against each other or if host Russia will keep them engaged on different training grounds at all times. 

While the Chinese side has released an official confirmation of its participation, the Indian Army or ministry of external affairs is yet to release any statement. However, experts believe that it will be highly unlikely that New Delhi pulls out of its arrangement with Kremlin. 

“In accordance with the annual plan for cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries and the bilateral agreements, the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) will soon delegate and send part of its forces to Russia for participation in the Vostok-2022 exercise,” read the Chinese official statement. 

Ever since the Doklam incident took place in 2017, the relations between the two neighbouring states have deteriorated sharply. 

The 2020 skirmishes near Line of Actiual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh where both sides lost a handful of their soldiers didn't help the matters either. 

Read more: India presses for disengagement in eastern Ladakh at military talks with China

Since then, there has been a limbo of sorts with more than a dozen military level of talks yielding no result. 

Following the clashes, both sides have started to deploy more and more forces in the eastern Ladakh region and currently, both have around 50,000 to 60,000 troops posted along the LAC.

Read More: Two years into India-China clash in Galwan valley, much remains unsolved

However, this is not the first time that the troops of two countries will be in the same military drill. Last year, India attended Exercise ZAPAD 2021 in Russia in which 17 countries including China and Pakistan took part.

(With inputs from agencies)

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