India-Sri Lanka combat exercises begin - Times of India

NEW DELHI: Special forces from India and Sri Lanka kicked off a joint combat exercise in the island nation on Monday, even though New Delhi remains upset with Colombo for allowing Chinese conventional submarines on long-range patrols to repeatedly dock in its ports.

The smallish "troop-level" exercise, Mitra Shakti, is being held at the Uva-Kudaoya commando training regiment school in Sri lanka from November 2 to 23 to enhance interoperability between the two forces. "From India, around 40 Indian Army Para-SF commandos are taking part in the exercise, the first edition of which was held in Nahan in India in December 2012," said an official.

As earlier reported by TOI, India for the last several years has been regularly training Sri Lankan armed forces as well as providing some military equipment to them. Towards this "capacity-building" to counter Chinese inroads into the island nation, India will now also supply two naval offshore patrol vessels to Sri Lanka.

India has earlier provided 24 L-70 guns, 24 battle-field surveillance radars, 11 USFM radars, four Indra-II radars and 10 mine-protected vehicles, among other things, to the Sri Lankan forces. Similarly, around 800 to 900 Sri Lankan military personnel are trained in Indian military establishments every year.

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