India has played a key role in facilitating Central Asia’s biggest country Kazakhstan’s UN peacekeeping missions.

Kazakhstan’s peacekeeping activities seek to assist the international community in preventing armed conflicts. To honour the contribution of the men and women serving under its flag, the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers has been celebrated on May 29 since 2002 worldwide.

The Kazakh military personnel’s participation in missions under the auspices of the United Nations affirms the peaceful foreign policy of the country. The Kazakh peacekeeping battalion was established by the Decree of the President in 2000. After their training, Kazbat military personnel began a peacekeeping mission in Iraq in 2003.

The Kazakh officers have served in missions in Western Sahara and Côte d’Ivoire as staff officers and military observers since 2014. The Kazakh contingent and staff officers have also been sent to the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) mission to ensure the implementation of the mandate in 2018. During this time, more than 500 officers participated in six rotations

The Ministry of Defense has been working to expand the scope of the presence of Kazakh military personnel in UN peacekeeping operations under direct instructions from the head of the state, President Tokayev. Kazakhstan has prepared special units of sappers, military doctors, intelligence and military police, which are always in high demand during peacekeeping missions.

In 2018 Kazakhstan Peacekeeping Company was deployed with the Indian Army’s JAT Infantry Battalion in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for peacekeeping operations. This was also a first for Kazakhstan to send troops for peacekeeping operations, which is also indicative of the fact that the country wants to play a larger role in global peace.

Expanding India-Kazakhstan military diplomacy, the sixth edition of KazInd 2022, the joint exercise of the Indian Army and Kazakhstan Army was held at Umroi in NE state of Meghalaya.

The joint annual training exercise with the Kazakhstan Army was instituted in 2016 as Exercise Prabal Dostyk, which was later upgraded to a company-level exercise and renamed as Ex Kazind in 2018.

In the sixth edition of KazInd, Kazakhstan Army soldiers, comprising troops from the Regional Command, South and Indian Army soldiers from the 11 Gorkha Rifles, took part. The aim of the exercise was to build positive military relations, imbibe each other’s best practices and promote the ability to operate together while undertaking counter-terrorist operations in semi-urban/ jungle scenarios, under a United Nations peace enforcement mandate, to enable the two armies to train, plan and execute a series of combined tactical drills for neutralising of likely threats that may be encountered in UN peacekeeping operations.

During the exercise, participants engaged in a variety of missions ranging from joint planning, joint tactical drills, basics of special arms skills, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and raiding a hostile target. The 14-day-long exercise aimed at building trust and understanding of each other in the field of national security.

The final validation exercise named as Ex Jenis (Ex Victory) displayed the various skills inculcated in patrolling, jungle shooting, reflex shooting, combat tracking, use of Mine Protective Vehicles and the conduct of raid. The exercise showed the intra-operation ability between both countries according to the UN Mandate.

(With Input Feeds)