Pakistan on Sunday opened a 60-hour-long joint military exercise in its northwest, with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United States (US) among the participating nations, the Pakistani military said.
The opening ceremony of the 7th International Pakistan Army Team Spirit (PATS) Exercise was held at the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) in Pabbi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
A total of 20 friendly countries, including Pakistan, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Morocco, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkiye, United States of America and Uzbekistan, are participating in the exercise.
Pakistan’s military training director-general opened the exercise, which is aimed at enhancing military-to-military cooperation under complex international security environment.
“Pakistan Army Team Spirit is a mission-specific and task-oriented professional military exercise organized annually in Pakistan,” the ISPR said in a statement.
“The exercise calls for highest standard of physical fitness, mental agility/robustness and professional military expertise for quick decision-making in varied situations during conduct of challenging missions in near-real environment.”
Officials from Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Myanmar, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and Oman will be witnessing the exercise as military observers, according to the ISPR.
“The exercise would help hone basic soldierly attributes besides interoperability through sharing of innovative ideas and mutual best practices,” it added.
Pakistan routinely holds joint air, ground and sea exercises with friendly nations to foster interoperability and joint deployment concepts to counter threats to global peace.
Several cadets from these nations annually visit the South Asian country, which has fought back militancy for decades, to undergo specialized military training.
