Indian Army chief Gen M M Naravane on Monday attended the closing ceremony of a multilateral UN-mandated counterterrorism exercise held in Bangladesh and praised the members of the Army contingent from India who participated in the drills

Gen Naravane is on the concluding day of his five-day Bangladesh visit, which started on Thursday last, to further strengthen the close and fraternal ties existing between the Armed Forces of the two nations.

Indian Army chief Gen M M Naravane on Monday attended the closing ceremony of a multilateral UN-mandated counterterrorism exercise held in Bangladesh and praised the members of the Army contingent from India who participated in the drills. “General MM Naravane #COAS attended the #ClosingCeremony of Multinational Exercise #ShantirOgrosena2021 and addressed the participants of the exercise,” the Indian Army’s Additional Directorate General of Public Information (ADG PI) tweeted.

During the Shantir Ogrosena 2021 (Frontrunners of Peace) exercise, he also interacted with the members of the Indian Army contingent and lauded them for their high standards of training and professionalism, according to another tweet. There were 30 personnel in the Indian Army contingent. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was the Chief Guest of the ceremony, ADG PI said.

The counterterrorism exercise, which commenced on April 4, was participated by the Armed Forces of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka along with observers from the US, UK, Turkey, Kuwait, Singapore and Saudi Arabia. The aim of the exercise was to strengthen the procedures and enhance interoperability amongst neighbourhood countries to ensure robust peacekeeping operations in the region.

The armies of all the participating nations shared their valuable experiences and refined their drills and procedures in peacekeeping operations. Gen Naravane is on the concluding day of his five-day Bangladesh visit, which started on Thursday last, to further strengthen the close and fraternal ties existing between the Armed Forces of the two nations.

The visit of the Army chief, who is here at the invitation of his Bangladeshi counterpart Gen Aziz Ahmed, comes less than two weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to the neighbouring country and met the top leadership here to strengthen the strategic ties. The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Bangladesh, the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan and the birth centenary of ‘Bangabandhu’ Mujibur Rahman.