India withdraws from multilateral military exercise, Kavkaz 2020, in Russia

India has withdrawn its participation from the multilateral Military Exercise Kavkaz 2020 to be held in Russia between 15th to 26th September 2020.
The reason for this has been cited as the COVID-19 Pandemic and consequent difficulties in exercise, including arrangements of logistics.
Kavkaz 2020 would be held in Astrakhan province of Southern Russia where member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Central Asian countries would be participating.
Other countries that would participate in this exercise are- China, Pakistan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.