The Indian Army is set to host the second edition of the Africa-India field training exercise (AFINDEX-23) from March 21 to 30, and African Chiefs Conclave on March 28, in Pune. Over 22 countries are scheduled to attend the conclave while 20 countries are expected to be part of the exercise, Army officials said.
“The objective is to continue to build upon the initiatives taken to strengthen India-Africa relations, with a focus on enhancing peace and security and create opportunities to exchange ideas and perspectives,” a Defence official said.
It is also an opportunity to learn from the African experience in cooperative security and management of security crisis situations, the official said. “It also helps to promote a collaborative approach in capacity enhancement of African Armies.”
The participating contingents arrived in Pune on Friday. The first Africa-India field training exercise was held in Pune in March 2019 which saw the participation of 20 African nations.
The India-Africa Defence Ministers Conclave was held on the sidelines of the DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow which adopted the Lucknow Declaration, laying down the path for defence cooperation between India and African nations. As a follow-up to it, an India-Africa defence dialogue was held at Gandhinagar on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022.
Officials said that as an outcome of the Indian outreach to African nations, the First India-Africa Chiefs Conclave had been envisaged to be held along with the second edition of AFINDEX.
Nine contingents of 78 personnel and 21 observers from 11 countries are scheduled in the exercise. For the conclave, 10 Chiefs and 12 representatives of Chiefs are scheduled to attend.
Exercise in four phases
The exercise is divided into four phases in which trainers would be initially trained. This would be followed by a humanitarian mine action and a peace-keeping operations phase, the official said. “Finally, a validation exercise will be conducted on March 29 to assess the results of the training conducted and will be witnessed by the Chiefs of African armies,” he said.
Maximum use of indigenous equipment is being made during the exercise and new generation equipment manufactured in India would be showcased during the exercise to give a feel of their efficacy to the troops of the participating nations, another official said, in line with the effort to promote defence exports.
A Defence equipment display is also being organised on March 29 by the Indian industry, and tours for visiting delegates to defence industries around Pune has also been planned, it has been learnt.
The Chiefs Conclave will be held on March 28 and will take place over two sessions. The first session will explore the key aspects of defence partnership while the second session will focus on Indian defence industry’s outreach to Africa, officials said. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also scheduled to address the conclave.
