Next month, Alaska will play host to a joint army training exercise between India and the US. The emphasis of the exercise will be on launching rapid, coordinated responses in high-altitude settings for a variety of emergencies, including natural disasters.

The Yudh Abhyas, the 19th iteration of the exercise, will take place in the second week of September, though the exact dates are still being debated.

On the Indian side, there will be participation from about 150 Infantry regiments, according to officials in the defense and security establishment.

The exercise, which will adhere to a UN mandate, will concentrate on operations related to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), as well as some elements of counterterrorism operations. Both countries’ troops will practice launching swift, coordinated relief operations.

Each year, the US and India alternately conduct the exercise. While the 2021 exercise took place in October at the Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson in Alaska (USA), the previous edition took place in Uttarakhand in November 2022, not far from the Line of Actual Control with China.

This will occur soon after the Malabar exercise, which will take place between August 11 and 22 and involve naval drills between the four Quad nations of India, the United States, Japan, and Australia. The purpose of this exercise is to improve communication between the four navies.

Following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the US in June, where he met with President Joe Biden, the two nations sought to strengthen bilateral ties and deepen strategic technology collaboration with a focus on the defense and technology arenas. This was followed by the Yudh Abhyas exercise.

In fact, a week before Modi’s trip to the US, Lloyd Austin, the US defense secretary, had traveled to India and met with Rajnath Singh, the Indian defense minister, to finalize a roadmap for defense industrial cooperation that outlined plans for the following few years.

India has recently gotten closer to the West, especially the US, to diversify its military equipment and prepare for the growing threat from China.

As part of the 2+2 ministerial dialogue in 2020, India and the US also signed the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) for geospatial cooperation, the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA), and the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

(SOURCE: ANI)