A mega wargame, involving the Indian Navy and several African nations, will be held in April as India tries to expand its overall defence cooperation with the African continent in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's new vision for engagement with the Global South.
Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Tarun Sobti said the Indian Navy and the Tanzania Peoples Defence Force will co-host the exercise, titled 'AIKEYME' or Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement, off Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania in mid-April.
The war game will be inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
The exercise is planned over six days and will see the participation of Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and South Africa, in addition to the co-hosts.
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The harbour phase of the exercise would include table-top and command-post exercises on piracy and information sharing, along with training on seamanship, while the sea phase comprises seamanship evolutions, search and rescue, visit board search and seizure, small-arms firing and helicopter operations.
"A large-scale multilateral maritime engagement exercise with African countries, titled 'Africa India Key Maritime Engagement' or 'AIKEYME', which means unity in Sanskrit, is an initiative to enhance interoperability with African navies," Vice Admiral Sobti told reporters.
India and Africa have been cooperating in tackling maritime security threats, such as piracy, illegal activities including trafficking, unregulated and unreported fishing, through the sharing of information and surveillance.
The 'AIKEYME' exercise is likely to significantly expand the ongoing cooperation.
PM Modi announced the vision MAHASAGAR or 'Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions' for India's engagement with the Global South during his recent visit to Mauritius.
The Indian Navy also announced the launch of another maiden initiative called Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) Sagar aiming to boost cooperation with the friendly countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). Under the initiative, one Indian naval ship is being deployed to the southwest of the IOR with a combined crew from India and nine other nations—Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sri Lanka and South Africa.