4-nation UN exercise ends in China
Besides Pakistan and China, Mongolia and Thailand participated in the 10-day drill
Pakistan’s armed forces concluded the multinational peacekeeping exercise with the militaries of China, Mongolia and Thailand.
The 10-day long drills featured around 1,000 troops from the four countries. The exercise that concluded on Sept 15 was held at Chinese People’s Liberation Army training base in Queshan county in Henan. The exercise involved infantry, quick reaction forces and helicopters. It also included latest Chinese equipment such as mine-clearing robots and bomb-detecting drones.
The UN Peacekeeping exercise called “Shared Destiny-2021” marked the first multinational peacekeeping exercise hosted by China. The drill was based on a 2016 incident when a Chinese peacekeeping base in Mali came under attack.
Key drills held
The troops practised armed escort, battlefield reconnaissance, vigilance and patrol, protection of civilians, response to violent and terrorist attacks, construction of temporary operating bases, battlefield rescue and epidemic control, covered the main operations of current UN peacekeeping missions.
Brigadier Shahid Amir Afsar, Pakistan’s defence attaché to China, said that the actual combat experience shared by China during the exercise was “much valuable to the Pakistani military” personnel.