Indra Naval Drills-2020

India and Russia will be holding two days toned down bilateral naval exercise, `Indra 2020’. It will be in the Andaman Sea, which is close to the strategic Strait of Malacca from Sept 4-5. Though the bilateral exercise has been toned down due to the global pandemic of COVID-19, it will be structured to enhance interoperability, validating and standardising common operating protocols towards greater operational cohesiveness across the spectrum of the maritime threat from the strategic to the non-traditional.

Recently, India withdrew from the Kavkaz-2020 multinational exercise in Russia scheduled for later this month due to the participation of Chinese troops. The naval exercise happening the backdrop of Defence Minister’s visit to Russia for the Shanghai Cooperation organisation (SCO) defence ministers meet.

Significance of the region

India has embarked on a major infrastructure expansion plan on the A&N island chain because of its strategic location. With ongoing tensions between India and China, Indian Navy is keeping a close watch on movement in the IOR of Chinese Naval ships whose presence has gone up considerably over the years in the name of Anti-Piracy patrols.

Indra

A bilateral naval exercise between India and Russia that began in 2003, the joint exercise assumed a tri-services scope with corresponding maturity and gradual increase in scope, complexity and level of participation. It strengthens mutual confidence and interoperability and also enables sharing of best practices between the armed forces of both countries.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020