Gen Kapoor visits UK to strengthen defence ties

{image-Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor_01092008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Sep 1: Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor will begin a four-day official visit to the United Kingdom on Monday, Sep 1 to strengthen existing defence ties.

The visit by the Army Chief will add the necessary impetus to the existing defence relationship and broad-base it into a mutually beneficial partnership. During his visit, the Army Chief will interact with the senior military and civilian defence hierarchy. He will also discuss various defence related issues to strengthen existing defence ties with UK. General Kapoor will visit Royal School of Artillery at Larkhill, Defence Academy at Shrivenham, Land Warfare Centre in Salisbury plains, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and National Army Museum. During his visit to Land Warfare Centre, General Kapoor will witness the training and preparation of Indian Mechanised Company which will be participating in a first ever joint training-cum-exercise on mechanized operations overseas with UK Land Warfare Centre Battle Gp (LWC BG).

This exercise is a reciprocal engagement to an earlier exercise carried out in High Altitude areas of India in end 2007 between Indian paratroopers and Royal Marines.

A strong bilateral relationship is of priority for both countries for economic and commercial, historical and foreign policy reasons and large Indian diaspora in UK.

India shares good bilateral and strategic relations with UK that are multifaceted and have been strengthened over the years with regular exchange of visits at political, diplomatic and military levels.

India's relations in the field of defence with UK have graduated from military cooperation to comprehensive defence comprehensive defence cooperation, to include courses, training for UN Peacekeeping Operations, joint training cum exercises in the fields of counter terrorism including employment of Special Forces, Mechanised Forces operations and exchange of observers on each others' Army exercises etc.

ANI