Senior Lieutenant General Vo Van Tuan, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, was among more than 80 observers from 28 countries witnessing the largest-ever foreign military exercise hosted by India, which concluded on March 7 in Pune city in the state of Maharashtra.

Force 18 concluded on March 7

On the last day of the military training, coded “Force 18”, the observers visited the Pune’s College of Military Engineering to witness a humanitarian mine action exercise.

They later were taken to Aundh to witness a peacekeeping operations exercise that included military drills such as patrolling, convoy protection and standard combat deployment.

This was followed by a debriefing, wherein the contingent heads brought out the lessons learnt and experiences shared.

Force 18, started on March 2, saw the participation of 18 countries, including the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN,) plus eight dialogue partners - India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Russia, the US, Australia and New Zealand.

VNA