US Army keen to learn from India's counter-insurgency operations

WASHINGTON: 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.

Noting that there is much to learn between the militaries of the two countries, US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno called for joint training to benefit from India's experiences in counter-insurgency in a tough environment and 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 told PTI in an interview.

Odierno, 58, during a rare trip to India late last month, met his Indian counterpart General Bikram Singh besides holding meetings with Defence Minister A K Antony and visiting the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur.

Highly impressed by the Indian military's successful counter-insurgency operations, he said, the US would like to learn from the Indian experience as to how to fight terrorists in a tough environment and difficult terrain.

When asked if the US would like to have joint exercises in Jammu and Kashmir where the terrain is difficult like that of Afghanistan, Odierno said he would like to look at that.

Odierno 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.

"I think, we would like to look at...we send may be send some people to learn how you train and operate in those environment and those are kind of had some initial discussions on...much more has to be done. It is things like that we would be interested in," he said.

"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," the US Army Chief of Staff said.

"It is important for us to sustain a long-term relationship of one that is equal, one that respects each other's strategic autonomy, but that one that enables us to learn from each other to develop together, to deal with many of the issues that we face around the world," he said.
Indian and US troops have already held joint exercises in the past in the mountainous Ladakh region in 2003.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/us-army-keen-to-learn-from-indias-counter-insurgency-operations/articleshow/21594590.cms

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