AULI, India — Indian and U.S. troops on Tuesday participated in a high-altitude coaching train in a chilly, mountainous terrain close to India’s disputed border with China, at a time each international locations try to handle rising tensions with Beijing.

During the train, Indian troopers had been dropped from helicopters to flush out gunmen from a home in an indication of unarmed fight abilities. Other drills concerned sniffer canines and unmanned bomb-disposing automobiles, and educated kites had been deployed to destroy small enemy drones.

“Overall, it has been a great learning experience. There has been sharing of best practices between both the armies,” stated Brig. Pankaj Verma of the Indian Army.

The annual drills took half round Auli, a hill station within the northern state of Uttarakhand. The U.S. troops got here from the 2nd Brigade of the eleventh Airborne Division, and their Indian counterparts had been members of the military’s Assam Regiment.

India’s Defence Ministry has stated the train will deal with surveillance, mountain-warfare abilities, casualty evacuation and fight medical assist in antagonistic terrain and weather conditions. It can even embody humanitarian help, catastrophe reduction, and operations associated to peacekeeping, it stated.

The “Yudh Abhyas” train has alternated between the U.S. and India because it started within the early 2000s. It was held in Alaska final 12 months.

Earlier editions had taken place elsewhere in northern India, however this 12 months’s train is being held solely about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Line of Actual Control, a disputed border that separates Chinese and Indian-held territories.

India and China fought a conflict alongside the border in 1962. The newest dispute flared in June 2020, when a minimum of 20 Indian troopers and 4 Chinese troops had been killed in a brawl within the Ladakh area. It led to the 2 international locations stationing tens of hundreds of troopers backed by artillery, tanks and fighter jets alongside the Line of Actual Control.

Some Indian and Chinese troopers have pulled again from a key friction level however tensions between the 2 international locations have endured.

The train additionally displays the strengthening protection ties between India and the U.S. They have steadily ramped up their navy relationship and signed a string of protection offers and deepened navy cooperation. In latest years, relations have been pushed by a convergence of pursuits to counter China.