Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif along with 20 heads of state and government on Thursday attended the concluding ceremony of 'North Thunder' military exercise. According to a statement from the media wing of the PM House, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi also witnessed the ceremony.
The event included different activities mainly air drops, armour movement and air assault through helicopters performed by the troops taking part in the exercise. Pakistani troops were part of the demonstration. The exercise commenced on February 14 this year near King Khaled Military City in North Eastern Saudi Arabia, with the participation of various military disciplines of artillery, tanks, infantry, and air defence systems as well as naval forces of 21 Arab and Islamic countries. The 'North Thunder' is the largest military drill in the world in terms of the number of participating forces. Military exercises of all these brotherly countries focus on training forces on how to deal with terrorist groups, the statement said.