India invited for largest Asia-Pacific military exercise

 India is among countries which have been invited to participate in the largest multi-national military exercise in the Asia-Pacific region, which is being held in Thailand from February 7 to 17 with an aim to improve capability to plan and conduct joint operations and build relationships.

'Exercise Cobra Gold 2012' is designed to advance regional security by exercising a robust multi-national force from nations sharing common goals and security commitments in the Asia-Pacific region.

Full participating nations for Cobra Gold 12 include Thailand, the US, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Several Countries which have been invited to participate on the multi-national planning augmentation team included Australia, France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Italy, India, Nepal, Philippines and Vietnam, the US Marine said in a statement.

Throughout the exercise, US military forces and militaries from several other countries worldwide will conduct field training exercises, involving live-fire training as well as a non-combatant evacuation exercise, a command-post exercise, and humanitarian and civic assistance projects.

It is expected to be participated by about 13,000 forces.Cobra Gold 2012 will improve capability to plan and conduct combined-joint operations, build relationships between partner nations and improve interoperability across the range of military operations, said the US Marine.