Second Africa-India joint military exercise commences in city
The joint exercise is in keeping with India’s outreach to Africa, which commenced in 2008 through the India-Africa Summit and has been thereafter held in 2015 and 2019
Pune
The second edition of the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AFINDEX-2023) between India and 23 African nations began on Tuesday at the Foreign Training Node in Aundh. This unique field training exercise is attended by 100 participants from Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Seychelles, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Lieutenant General Rakesh Kapoor, VSM, Corps Commander, Desert Corps, addressed the participants.
The joint exercise is in keeping with India’s outreach to Africa, which commenced in 2008 through the India-Africa Summit and has been thereafter held in 2015 and 2019.
The exercise’s theme is humanitarian mine action and peacekeeping operations. Military cooperation and engagement among participating member nations are critical for improving interoperability and operational readiness for UN peacekeeping missions.
“The objectives of the exercise are to continue to build on the initiatives taken to strengthen India-Africa relations, with a focus on enhancing peace and security, to create opportunities to create ideas and perspectives, learn from African experience in cooperative security and management of security crisis situations, and to promote a collaborative approach in capacity enhancement of African armies,” said a defence spokesperson in a release.
