India on Saturday decided to withdraw its military participation from the multi-nation SCO-plus exercise in Russia, where Chinese and Pakistani troops were also due to participate.
Though the ongoing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh is seen as the main reason behind the decision, officially the worsening COVID-19 situation was also an important factor for not sending troops abroad.
Earlier this month, India accepted the invitation to take part in the Russian Kavkaz 2020 “strategic command-post exercise” scheduled in the Astrakhan region from September 15-26. China and Pakistan were amongst the 18 countries invited to take part as members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
According to official sources in South Block, an Indian contingent of close to 200 personnel—including 150 soldiers from the Army and a smaller number from the IAF and Navy—was short-listed to take part in the multilateral exercise.
Today, in a high-level meeting, attended by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar along with other senior officials from the defence and external affairs ministries, it was decided that it would "not be appropriate to take part in military wargames where Chinese and Pakistan would also be present".
Meanwhile, intelligence inputs claimed that the Chinese military has created a huge build-up to support its frontline troops, who remain eyeball-to-eyeball with Indian soldiers in multiple locations along the LAC. Besides, permanent shelters, optic fibre cables and bridges were built over streams and rivulets for faster movement of troops during upcoming winter.
However, the Indian military has also made equal preparations to tackle the PLA's aggression on the border, with additional infrastructure and deployment of massive troops.
The event would have been Indian military's first participation in bilateral or multilateral wargames after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. All bilateral and multilateral military exercises were put on hold due to the global pandemic of COVID-19.
One exception was in June when Indian and Chinese military contingents marched at the Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow as part of the 75th anniversary of World War II. Defence minister Rajnath Singh had also attended the event in Moscow.
India, China, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan were to take part in Kavkaz 2020.
The word Kavkaz is derived as a modern variant of Caucasus or Caucasia, a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and mainly occupied by Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and southwestern Russia. The Kavkaz region is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus mountain range, which has historically been considered a natural barrier between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.