US impressed by India’s ‘successful’ COIN operations, seeks joint training

[TamilNet, Monday, 05 August 2013, 16:24 GMT]
“Impressed by the Indian Army's successful counter-terrorism operations, the US Army chief has proposed joint training between the armies of the two countries,” PTI reported on Sunday. The US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno, observing the need for greater cooperation between the militaries of the two countries, has called for “joint training to benefit from India's experiences in counter-insurgency in a tough environment and difficult terrain.” In an interview to PTI, Gen. Odierno expressed interest in learning from India in conducting military operations in difficult terrain.

"We would love to do some joint training in the mountainous environment, because what the Indian Army has learned over the years, we would love to share what we learned about counter-insurgency and compare experiences and see how we can learn from each other and how we can direct that to use in the future, so for me it is something that is important," Odierno had told PTI.

"Everybody recognises, India has so much in common with the US and that it is important for us to sustain a strong long-lasting relationship," he had further said.

When asked about his interest in having joint military exercises in the Jammu and Kashmir region, one of India’s persisting conflict regions which is also a geographically hard terrain, the US General had said that “this is something that the US may be interested in but still need to take a look at by sending people to train in these types of environments.”

Several Tamil activists and analysts condemn the Washington-New Delhi nexus as being the chief architects of Sri Lanka’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation.

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