Umroi, Feb 3, 2020: The Indian army and Bangladesh army began their joint training exercise called  “SAMPRITI-IX” on Monday at the Umroi military station in Meghalaya.
The joint training which is part of the ongoing Indo-Bangladesh defence cooperation will continue for 14 days upto February 16.
The Bangladesh army is led by contingent commander, Md Shafiul Azam of the 42nd Bangladesh infantry regiment, while the Indian Army is led by Brigadier Rajesh Sharma of the Bihar regiment.
Exercise SAMPRITI is an important bilateral defence cooperation endeavour between India and Bangladesh, and it is the ninth edition hosted alternately by both the countries.
Sharma who welcomed the Bangladeshi contingent said that the main focus of the joint exercise is on counter terrorist operations in mountainous and jungle terrains under the United Nations mandate.
Stating India and Bangladesh are the two nations which progressed on a path of mutual co-existence and peace as neighbours and fellow developing nations, Sharma said that both the nations also engaged in the process of socio-economic transformation of the people at an unprecedented pace and on a large scale.
“The exercise will go a long way in honing the skills of both the contingents based on sharing of specialised knowledge and tactical expertise in a period of time while operating in various scenarios. This will also ensure that towards the culmination of the joint exercise, both the contingents would have achieved the highest standards of inter operability  and associated skills to counter any challenge in the ever changing threat scenarios specially being the largest troop contributors to the United Nations peace keeping mission,” Sharma said, hoping that the joint exercise would yield excellence results along with strengthening of bond between the two nations.
Azam recalled the martyrs of the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 and praised India for supporting Bangladesh especially during the Liberation war which has established long lasting friendships since then.
Terming Bangladesh and Indian armies as two neighbouring “friendly armies”, Azam  said, “The Bangladesh army has always benefitted from the support given by Indian army and a good number of participants from Bangladesh come every year to India to undertake training in Indian military establishments. This has really contributed towards developing the standard of officers and men. Bangladesh army also received a good number of persons from Indian army for trainings. Both the armies have multifarious engagements in different fields.”
Stating the aim of the joint exercise is to build and promote positive relations between India and Bangladesh armies, Azam hoped that that through this exercise, the relation will be better than before and officers and men will be more knowledgeable after the exercise.
Each side comprised of 128 jawans, 12 officers and 1o junior commission officers (JCOs).
On the inaugural day of the joint exercise, both Azam and Sharma reviewed the parade of both the contingents, and military bands including the Assam Regiment band enthralled the jawans and officers present.
During the joint military exercise SAMPRITI-IX, a Command Post Exercise (CPX) and a Field Training Exercise (FTX) will be conducted.
For both the CPX and FTX, a scenario where both nations are working together in a counter terrorism environment will be simulated under the United Nations charter.
The training will culminate with a final validation exercise in which troops of both armies will jointly practice a counter terrorist operation in a controlled and simulated environment.
In addition, to understand each other at tactical level, greater cultural understanding will be emphasized to strengthen military trust and cooperation between two nations.
