By Berk Kutay Gokmen
ISTANBUL (AA) – China and Nepal will hold their fifth counter-terror joint military drills in the landlocked Himalayan nation next month, Beijing announced on Thursday.
The "Sagarmatha Friendship 2025" will take place between early and mid-September in Nepal, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang told reporters in Beijing, according to an official transcript.
The bilateral exercise, the fifth iteration of its kind, will be organized in the form of mixed teams with participating troops teaching and learning from each other.
During the exercise, military troops will take part in “comprehensive drills” on joint “counter-terrorism operations” and practice disaster relief and peacekeeping operations.
The event aims to further strengthen the capabilities of Chinese and Nepalese armies in “joint counter-terrorism operations” and enhance the “traditional friendship” and “pragmatic cooperation” between the two militaries.