ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the Indian protest, Russia and Pakistan will carry out their first joint military exercise this weekend, the Pakistani military said on Friday, at a time of heightened tensions between Islamabad and India.
The Russian contingent of armed forces had reached Pakistan. The exercise is being seen as a demonstration of closer defence ties between the two countries after they signed a military cooperation pact in 2014.
It comes after intense drills by the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) earlier this week that officials said had been long-planned, including landing combat aircraft on the Islamabad to Lahore motorway.
“A contingent of Russian ground forces arrived in Pakistan for first-ever Pak-Russian joint exercise from 24 September to 10 October 2016,” military spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa tweeted on Friday, without giving further details.
Pakistani defence and security analyst Hasan Askari said the exercise “signifies Russian desire to expand their options in South Asia”, adding it was the “natural” result of closer Indian ties with the US. Islamabad has also been negotiating with Moscow a deal to buy combat helicopters. “These helicopters were to be supplied this year but now they are likely to arrive in 2017,” Askari said.
On Thursday, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched the Highmark Exercise, shutting down sections of the motorway leading out of the capital to land “several” combat aircraft for the first time in six years, a senior security source said.
The drill came as India and Pakistan traded angry words over an attack on an Indian Army base in disputed Kashmir that Delhi has blamed on Islamabad. But Pakistani officials said Highmark was a routine exercise, with a senior security official saying that preparations — including setting the dates it would take place — had begun around one year ago.
The drill is aimed at enhancing “operational preparedness”, the official said, and will continue for several weeks followed by months of evaluation.Earlier in the week the Pakistani military briefly closed airspace above the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region neighbouring Kashmir.Foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in Islamabad on Thursday the moves were regular and routine.
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