• India and Sri Lanka will carry out a 12-day mega military exercise — Mitra Shakti — from October 4 at the Combat Training School in Sri Lanka’s Ampara.

• This is the 8th edition of bilateral joint Exercise.

• The aim of the exercise is to promote close relations between armies of both countries and enhance inter-operability and sharing best practices in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations.

• An all arms contingent of 120 personnel of the Indian Army will participate in the drills along with a battalion-strength contingent of the Sri Lankan Army.

• The exercise will involve tactical level operations at sub-unit level in an international counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment.

• The exercise will go a long way in further strengthening the relationship between both the South Asian nations and will act as a catalyst in bringing synergy and cooperation at the grass-root level between both armies.

• The 7th edition of the Mitra Shakti exercise was conducted at the Foreign Training Node (FTN) in Pune in 2019.

Other exercise with Sri Lanka

SLINEX: The eighth edition of the bilateral maritime exercise — SLINEX — involving Indian Navy and Sri Lanka Navy was conducted in October 2020 off Trincomalee in Sri Lanka.

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