New Delhi (Staff Correspondent), November 12: Whenever there is a military exercise between the armies, navies or the air forces two or more nations it requires fir immense utilisation of resources. These resources require mammoth expenses and it is the tax payer’s money that sponsors such exercises. However, are such frequent joint defence exercises required and are they worthy of such an elaborate expense?
Objectively, a joint exercise between the two countries means to build up cooperation between their defence capacities and to be able to adapt in different terrains and topography which are not common to their home ground. Also, it enables a country’s defence mechanism to evolve and adopt technologies and tactics used by their counterparts making them more diversified in defence and combat strategies.
In context of India, largely we indulge in three kinds of joint exercises – Domestic Exercise, Bilateral Exercise and Multilateral exercise.
A domestic exercise aims to improve internally with engagements between different domestic departments or different units from one defence wing. It can also be inter-services or intra-services depending on nature and results as desired. Some of the domestic exercises India has previously run are Vijay Prahar and Gandiv Vijay of the Army and Vayu Shakti for the Air Force.
Then comes bilateral exercise which are conducted between two countries and there are also multilateral exercise where in more than one partner nations participate.
Some of the significant bilateral defence exercises that India has been actively part of, are Malabar Exercise that started in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between the Indian and US navies. This, in 2015 trilateral exercise when Japan joined, and a quadrilateral exercise in 2020 when the Australian Navy also joined in.
Other than this, there is Shakti Exercise, a bilateral exercise between India and France’s militaries that alternates between the two countries, Imbax Army Exercise between India and Seychelles that has been ongoing since 2001, Garuda Shakti between special forces from India and Indonesia, Nomadic Elephant between India and Mongolia and Ekuverin military drill between India and the Maldives, among others.
There have been debates around the frequency and effectiveness of such exercises. The defence experts, however, have a different stand altogether.
It is largely believed that a nations needs to be war ready. Also, the heavy war machinery that every country keeps procuring needs to be kept in practice to understand and reach the best of its capacity to be used in the time of contingency.
Further, they believe that a military exercise is crucial to any country as it measures the performance of the armed forces without engaging in a real battlefield. These are useful in the case of joint military operations be it in war or in operations other than war such as disaster relief, and humanitarian aid.
In addition, governments believe that such joint military exercises are also essential for the cooperation of countries apart from economic and diplomatic cooperation. In fact the joint military exercises are a way for multiple countries to assess their military capabilities without putting them in actual combat where casualties may occur. Some also say that the most significant benefit of joint military exercises is strategic signalling.
Time and again, not just Indian but the defence ministries of other countries too have stressed upon the fact, that joint defence exercises have immensely been helpful in building and strengthening cooperation between nations, help countries observe the tactics of their adversaries, in training with each other and learn about new technologies, help them improve coordination and strengthen regional security.
But at the same time issues regarding the expenses and the usage of tax payer’s money by the activist groups and independent watchdogs have also been raised. At the end, however, as they say, safety comes at a cost and therefore it can unarguably be said that given the situation in the middle east and the wars that have been sparked off India’s west, clearly indicate the urgent need for a preparedness on the combat front.
It is therefore crucial for India, not just given its geopolitical stand but also the geographical positioning, with Pakistan on one side and the China on the upper, unstable neighbours like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and the vulnerable Nepal, that it ensures not only that our borders remain vigilant round the clock.
Moreover India needs to give a clear and loud message out there that it is war ready and at the same time has a camaraderie with its friendly nations in order to seek and extend support in times of crisis.
And one effective way forward to that is via joint defence exercises in which India has undeniably excelled in the last decade.
