- Wednesday, May 08, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
The western Indian city of Pune on Tuesday (28) played host to senior army and civil and defence officials for the first India-Africa Army Chiefs’ Conclave, giving enough indication of the South Asian nation’s deepening defence engagement with African nations.
The meeting, which was organised on the sidelines of the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX) joint exercises, saw participation by Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh and the chief of the army staff general Manoj Pande, among others.
According to an official release about the event, “Rajnath Singh reiterated India’s commitment to provide support to African partner-countries in all defence related matters, including capability enhancement of their Armed Forces, to ensure their economic growth and social development.”
“India has been at the forefront of providing training to the Armed Forces of African nations and equipping them with necessary skills to face the security challenges of the 21st century. The training programmes cover a wide range of areas, including counter-insurgency operations, peacekeeping, maritime security and specialised training in new domains such as cyber warfare and drone operations.
“It also encompasses training civilians in areas such as disaster management, humanitarian aid and medical assistance. A large number of African Countries’ Armed Forces personnel continue to visit India for training in different areas,” it added.
Singh said India and its numerous defence partners from Africa are brought together by their common focus on maritime security and counter-terrorism.
The AFINDEX exercise, which is seeing its second edition currently, aims at strengthening interoperability between India’s defence forces and key partners.
The 10-day exercises feature participation from 23 African nations, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Seychelles, Rwanda, South Africa and others.
