ISLAMABAD, Oct 13: The US and Pakistan will conduct joint military exercises on Pakistani soil this week, the first since Washington lifted sanctions against Islamabad late last year.

A US infantry company and a Pakistani infantry battalion will hold three weeks of exercises starting sometime this week, US embassy spokesman Terry White told AFP.

The last joint exercises were held in 1997.

Military and economic sanctions were imposed after Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in 1998.

The exercises, dubbed “Inspired Gambit”, “will focus on small arms ranges and small unit tactics,” White said. He was unable to say exactly where the exercises would take place.

The US Central Command is deploying part of the First Battalion of the Fifteenth Infantry Regiment of the Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division, based in Fort Stewart, Georgia for the exercises, White said.

The US recently completed military exercises with Pakistan’s neighbour India in September.

“What we do for one we have to do for another,” said another US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said the exercises would take place in eastern Punjab, close to the border with India.

“The Indians are a little alarmed that they’re happening so close to their border,” he added.

The US lifted sanctions last year in reward for Pakistan’s cooperation with the US-led military campaign against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in neighbouring Afghanistan.