PANEX21, a multi-national Humanitarian Assistance & Disaster Relief Exercise of BIMSTEC nations commenced today with an aim to develop joint response mechanisms in handling natural disasters in the backdrop of pandemics.
Experts and delegates from India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand are participating in the three-day exercise being held at Pune.
Inaugurating the exercise, Army chief, Gen M M Naravane said the outbreak of Covid-19 has taught everyone many lessons and highlighted the importance of global and regional cooperation while tackling any pandemic-like situation.
He said the outspread of the Covid-19 pandemic across the world has taught everyone many lessons in terms of preventive control, mitigation strategy, and protocols.
For the first time, Gen Naravane said, an exercise of such a scale was being undertaken to streamline the response strategy to fight the pandemic. He also shared with the delegates’ ideas and experiences in the field of disaster relief and pandemic management.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Pune tomorrow to witness the exercise.