Joint exercise SHAKTI 2024

The military exercise between the Indian and the French Armies, ‘SHAKTI 2024’, kicked off today at the Eastern Command’s Joint Training Node, Umroi, Meghalaya. This is the seventh edition of the SHAKTI joint exercise series, held alternately in India and France. The Ambassador of France to India, H.E. Mr Thierry Mathou, delivered a speech on Indo-French defence cooperation at the opening ceremony.

This year’s exercise focuses on training for ground control operations in semi-urban and mountainous terrain under United Nations mandate, and will last until 26 May 2024. It marks a new level of complexity compared to previous editions as it has fielded twice as many troops as before, has started with a brigade-level command post exercise, and includes for the first time Air Force assets as well as Navy and Air Force observers.

The French contingent comprises 90 personnel from the Légion étrangère (Foreign Legion), an elite corps of the French Army. On 26 January, another contingent from the Légion étrangère had taken part in India’s Republic Day parade with France as guest of honour.

This year’s SHAKTI exercise is also taking place in the framework of an intensification of Indo-French defence ties following President Macron’s State Visit to India on 25-26 January. Recently, CDS General Anil Chauhan paid an official visit to France, while the French Navy and Army Chiefs visited India. A French frigate, FS Bretagne, made a port call in Kerala last week as part of an Indo-Pacific deployment. The bilateral “Varuna” naval exercise will take place later this year, and the French Air Force will take part in India’s multi-nation

Tarang-Shakti exercise scheduled in August.

Defence and security cooperation is an essential component of the Indo-French strategic partnership. It was enshrined as the first pillar of the Horizon 2047 Roadmap, which charts the course of the partnership’s next 25 years, and was adopted during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2023 visit to France on the occasion of Bastille Day. Indo-French defence cooperation aims to strengthen both nations’ sovereignty and strategic autonomy, and to advance peace in the region.