Vietnamese and Indian participants in the exercise pose for a photo (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam and India began a jointexercise on scale model in Thach That district, Hanoi, on July 8 to shareexperience in dealing with situations that may arise during peacekeepingoperations at United Nations missions.

The 2019 Vietnam-India Bilateral Army Exercise(VINBAX), which will last until July 14, was attended by 30 officers from bothcountries.

Col. Nguyen Nhu Canh, Deputy Director of theVietnam Department of Peacekeeping Operations, said following the success ofthe first VINBAX, held in India in 2018, this year’s drill is a good occasionfor the two countries to continue exchanging knowledge about and experience indeployment, management and direction activities and the settlement ofsituations that peacekeepers may face at UN missions. It will help improve theeffectiveness of their participation in multidimensional peacekeeping missions.

The exercise is also a contribution to themutual understanding, friendship and cooperation in UN peacekeeping betweenVietnam and India, he added, noting that it is held amidst the fruitfulcooperation in the field and growing bilateral defence ties. 

India has strongly supported Vietnam to takepart in peacekeeping activities by inviting Vietnamese officers to join inpeacekeeping training courses or seminars it organised.

Canh expressed his belief that the VINBAX 2019will be useful for promoting Vietnam’s capacity, particularly when it ispreparing to further engage in UN peacekeeping operations, including deployinganother level-2 field hospital and a sapper unit.-VNA