Exercise MAITREE-XV training got under way this week at Vibhavadi Rangsit Camp in Surat Thani, Thailand, after Tuesday's opening ceremony presided over by Lieutenant General Norathip Phoynok, Commander, 4th Army Area, Royal Thai Army.

The 15th edition of the India Thailand Joint Military Exercise runs from 18 to 31 August.

Eighty five personnel each from the Indian Army and the Royal Thai Army are taking part. The Indian side is drawn from 9 Gorkha Rifles, the Thai side from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Brigade. Both contingents had already spent Tuesday's opening ceremony trading a first look at each other's kit before the harder Exercise MAITREE-XV training got going in earnest.


Exercise MAITREE-XV training opens at Surat Thani

Lt Gen Phoynok's opening address set the tone for a fortnight built around joint counter insurgency and counter terrorism operations in jungle and semi urban environments, according to an official statement. The stated aim is interoperability and an exchange of operational experience between the two armies.

The contingent had departed India for Thailand days earlier to take part in this edition, the first since the previous MAITREE was held at the Foreign Training Node in Umroi, Meghalaya, last September, an earlier release had noted.

Field training moves into jungle survival and casualty evacuation

Once the ceremony concluded, both contingents began joint training in jungle survival, first aid and casualty evacuation. Troops from the two armies worked through these modules together rather than in parallel national tracks, a format the exercise has followed since it was instituted in 2006.

Trench clearing and UAV integration

Training also covered trench clearing drills. Alongside these, both sides practised the employment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in support of joint operations, pairing tactical skills long drilled into infantry units with newer surveillance technology.

Muay Thai training builds camaraderie

The Indian contingent was also introduced to Muay Thai, Thailand's traditional martial art, often called the Art of Eight Limbs for its coordinated use of fists, elbows, knees and shins. Thai instructors ran the Indian troops through its fundamentals.

The sessions were framed as more than a fitness add on. Alongside conditioning, agility and close combat skills, the training was pitched as a way to build cultural understanding and camaraderie between the two contingents, ahead of the harder tactical phases still to come. The Indian Army's own releases page carries the exercise's earlier updates.

A recurring bilateral engagement

MAITREE has run since 2006, one of the Indian Army's longer standing bilateral exercises with a Southeast Asian partner, alongside a broader run of India Thailand defence engagement that has included the India Thailand Defence Dialogue in Bangkok and an Eastern Fleet port call at Sattahip earlier this year.

Training at Surat Thani will progressively build toward a validation exercise before this edition closes on 31 August.