The joint military exercise between the armies of India and Nepal ‘Surya Kiran’ began on Friday at Nepal Army Battle School, Saljhandi of Nepal.

Surya Kiran aims to enhance inter-operability and share experience on Counter Insurgency and Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief operations, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said in a press release.

The forces will familiarize themselves with each other’s weapons, equipment, tactics and procedures during the two-week exercise while operating in a counter-insurgency environment, particularly in mountainous terrain. To further enhance the scope and scale of the exercise, the contingents will be exposed to scenarios dealing with Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, High Altitude Warfare and Jungle Warfare operations.

The joint exercise would focus on the evolution of combined drills for planning and conducting tactical operations at the unit level in general counter-terrorism operations and disaster response mechanisms and the armed forces’ role in managing disasters.

The exercise began unfurling the national flags and both armies marching to the tune of Indian and Nepali military tunes. The Joint Military Training is scheduled to conclude on December 29 with a grueling 48 hours validation exercise to validate the performance of both armies in Counter Insurgency environment.

“Ex Surya Kiran will go a long way in improving bilateral relations and mutual cooperation ben both the armies and further strengthening the unique, time-tested friendship between India and Nepal,”  the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said in the press release.

“Suryakiran series of exercises also stands testimony to strong Indo-Nepal relations which are vast and varied, and unlikely to be found anywhere in the world,” it added.