Vice Chief flags-in Indo-Myanmar joint car rally

ANI: 29 December, 2006

New Delhi: Vice Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General S Pattabhiraman today said that military cooperation between India and Myanmar is increasing.

Speaking on the occasion of the flagging-in ceremony of the first ever Indo-Myanmar joint army car rally, Pattabhiraman said that, "As far as military cooperation is concerned, lots of training and equipment exchange is being looked at between India and Myanmar. We're looking forward to this friendly relation that we between us, growing in the near future. The Border Roads Organisation is also helping in road building on either side."

U Kyi Thein, the Myanmarese Ambassador to India, expressed satisfaction over the successful completion of the rally, and said: "Not only army to army, but also government to government and people to people cooperation is extending between both the nations. Both the armies are interacting for a joint training also. In future India and Myanmar are ready to fight militancy together."

Rally leader Colonel K S Chauhan said the 8000-kilometre-long terrain was tough and required improvement as there were broken tracks and river beds to be crossed, and added that more such joint rallies could help bring the nations together.

The rally which was flagged-off on December 5 from India Gate's Amar Jawan Jyoti here, by Defence Minister A K Antony, was basically to remember and honour the martyred Indian soldiers, 20,000 of whom died in World War-II, fighting under the British flag in Burma in 1942.

The rally which was sponsored by General Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, and J K Tyres, had 12 vehicles and 39 personnel from the Indian and the Myanmarese armies. It reached Yangon's Taukkyan War Cemetery on December 16 (which is celebrated as Vijay Diwas in India), to pay obeisance to the martyred soldiers. The cemetery has the names of 19,574 martyrs of undivided India.

A 45 member delegation led by Major General A K Lamba reached the war cemetery on December 16, along with members of the Indian Navy and Air Force to pay homage at commemorative ceremony at the cemetery for the martyred soldiers.

The participating regiments from the Indian Army were those who fought in Burma in 1942, like the Kumaon, Rajput, Grenadiers and the 61^st Cavalry.