India Celebrates 63rd Republic Day

India began celebrating its 63rd Republic Day on 26th, Thursday with a military parade and performances by dancers and singers wearing traditional costumes.

This year’s parade will highlight the nation’s achievements in various fields along with the military prowess, displaying air power including newly acquired aircraft.

Before the parade began, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday paid a tribute to soldiers who have died for the country by laying a wreath at the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate.

The highlight of this year’s parade will be the 3000km range Agni-IV missile. The intermediate range surface-to-surface ballistic missile mounted on a road mobile launcher is being paraded by the Defense Research and Development Organization, according to local TV reports.

The Indian Air Force will display its latest acquisition, the C- 130-J Super Hercules tactical aircraft from the United States, which makes its debut at the Republic Day Parade.

Commanded by Lt. General Vijay Kumar Pillai, General Officer Commanding, Delhi Area. Major General Rajbir Singh, Chief of Staff, Delhi Area will be the parade Second-in-Command, the marching contingents of Army will include the horse-mounted columns, parachute, engineer, paramilitary forces, and cadets.

Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was the state guest for this year’s parade.

Whearas, after the meeting of the two prime ministers, India and Thailand have agreed to elevate their ties to strategic partnership by signing six pacts in the fields of defense, security, trade, combating terrorism and piracy, local media reported Thursday.

During talks between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra, who began a visit to the country Wednesday, the two countries agreed to expedite their negotiations on a free trade area agreement in goods, services and investments by July.

Six agreements were signed after the talks, which included transfer of sentenced persons, a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation and amending the framework agreement for establishing FTA.

The two countries will promote cooperation in science and technology, cultural exchange and cooperation between Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) at the India Studies Center of the Thai university.

NEW DELHI (Xinhua=AsiaN)

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