Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 5

All military exercises which the Indian armed forces conduct with militaries of other countries have been suspended till further orders due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Defence in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs had planned more than 50 exercises during 2020. “Everything has been put on hold till further orders,” said a senior functionary, adding that even after the covid scare goes away it will take some time for militaries to start re-engaging with each other. Assets like warships, planes and helicopters and combat manpower of each country have been diverted to oversee the crisis.

There’s no scope for even conducting the planning conferences which are prelude to conducting a exercise. The calendar for exercises will have to redrawn; some exercises will be expectedly curtailed while others will have to be ‘postponed’. Countries will have to commit assets and also be sure that the host country is free from Covid.

The scheduled list for 2020 included several bilateral exercises with countries like US, Russia China, France, UK, Israel, Japan, Brazil, South Africa, Malaysia, Nepal, among others.