Chief of Army Staff General Naravane on Monday addressed the inauguration of PANEX-21 which is a trans-national multi-agency exercise. PANEX-21 is being conducted from December 20 to 22. The aim of this exercise is to foster jointness and develop capabilities in disaster management aspects for the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) nations.
“We all have witnessed in the recent past the massive disaster caused by the COVID-19 pandemic since the end of 2019 in the entire world and which is still causing havoc in many countries,” said the army chief.
“Moreover, a dual disaster is a current reality that we must be prepared for, so as to mitigate its impact on our populations. Therefore, the importance of trans-national cooperation to gain regional cooperation on this is imperative. BIMSTEC is such a group of member nations which share many commonalities and have been involved culturally & economically since many years,” he added.
