Russian joint major military exercises from Saturday

The only venue of the military exercise is Cherat.

The exercises will be held at Cherat – where the Special Services Group, the commando division of the Pakistan Army, is headquartered and where the Special Operations School is also located – and at the Army High Altitude School in Rattu, Astore district. However, the information was later taken off from the TASS website.

According to details, around 200 military personnel of both countries will participate in the two-week exercises.

Pakistan’s top military spokesman, Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, said a “contingent of Russian ground forces” arrived in Pakistan for a two-week exercise beginning on Saturday.

The exercise is being seen as a demonstration of closer defense ties between the two countries after they signed a military cooperation pact in 2014.

While ties between Russian Federation and Pakistan are growing closer, Pakistan’s relations with the United States have cooled.

Following the Uri strike in held-Kashmir, several Indian news sources maintained that Russian Federation had called the joint war games off with Pakistan.

The troops of Indian Army marched alongside the Russian Army in the opening ceremony of Exercise Indra 2016.

Moscow informed New Delhi of the scheduled joint exercise with Pakistan and is certain that they should not concern India, considering that they are conducted far from the disputed territories, Zamir Kabulov, the chief or Russian Foreign Ministry’s Middle East department told RIA Novosti. Senior army officers of the Pakistan army welcomed the contingent.

This military exercise which comes at a time when India has issued threats of cross-border strikes and also revealed an intention to isolate Pakistan from its key allies is also likely to be viewed with consternation. Though the drill is not taking place anywhere in PoK, the very fact that the Russians are holding such drills with the Pakistanis is bad news for India.

Meanwhile a report said Pakistan’s armed forces have reportedly selected targets in India in case the latter decides to move first with strikes against the country.

But Russian military cooperation with Pakistan has been increasing over the past few years, with the two countries signing a deal on four Russian Mi-35M attack helicopters last August.