Breaking news
First joint military exercise Druzhba-2016 for Russian and Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan 12809161.
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Defence & Security News - Pakistan / Russia
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| First joint military exercise Druzhba-2016 for Russian and Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan. | |||
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Russia is conducting the Friendship 2016 (Druzhba-2016) joint exercise with the Pakistani Armed Forces in the mountains of the Cherat range in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, according to Russia`s and Pakistan`s officials.
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 Pakistani soldier during mountain training for Druzhba-2016 joint military exercise with Russian troops. |
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This is the first time that Russia and Pakistan conduct their first joint military exercises in Pakistan. On Tuesday, September 27, 2016, over 40 soldiers from the two countries took part in a mountain training exercise.
"The Druzhba-2016 Russian-Pakistani joint exercise will take place between September 24 and October 10 at the Cherat range in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Russia and Pakistan have dispatched a total of 200 troops to participate in the exercise," Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of Russia`s Foreign Ministry, Yury Materiy said. According to the local media, New Delhi has already expressed its concern over the Friendship 2016 exercise. Senior members of India`s military said that Russia had decided not to consider calling off the drills despite overtures by New Delhi. India has also informed Russia about the concern over the plan to supply four combat helicopters to Pakistan and the aforementioned joint drills. "We suppose that Moscow will not make gestures that may harm India`s security," a senior source in the Indian government told the Economic Times newspaper. However, the Friendship 2016 drills are aimed at the strengthening of military cooperation in order to eliminate illegal armed groupings, including the terroristic ones, Russian and Pakistani officials pointed out. Indian defense analysts suppose that the decision not to call off the joint drills reveals the displeasure of by Moscow over the fact the New Delhi is strengthening military technical cooperation with the United States, France, and Israel. It should be noted that in 2015 Russia decided to sell four Mil Mi-35M (NATO reporting name: Hind-J) gunships to Islamabad in order to promote mutual counter-terroristic cooperation between the countries. |
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