Scaling up military diplomacy for securing strategic and economic interests, Indian Navy will for the first time carry out a mega exercise for the first time next month with several African countries.

Briefing media about the upcoming event, India’s Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Tarun Sobti, said on Monday that navies of ten countries, including Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, will remain engaged in the 6-day long drills that start from April 11.

Live firing drills is part of the exercise split into multiple phases, Tarun Sobti said. And the harbour phase would include table-top and command-post exercises on piracy and information sharing, along with training on seamanship, he said.

The maiden edition of the exercise is being co-hosted by Indian Navy and Tanzania Peoples’ Defence Force (TPDF) and would be conducted at or off D2ar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. It’s planned to be inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, said Indian Navy.

The maritime approach is also an attempt to counter the growing influence of China in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). This is part of the whole of government approach to build on the relationship with Africa.

Apart from AIKEYME, the Navy is also launching initiative of Indian Ocean Ship (IOS) Sagar, both aimed at consolidating it’s stature as the ‘Preferred Security Partner’ and ‘First Responder’ in the IOR.

The IOS Sagar reflects Indian Navy’s continued cooperation with Indian Ocean Region nations. In that, one Indian Naval ship (INS Sunayna) is being deployed to the Southwest IOR with a combined crew of India and nine Friendly Foreign Countries (Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Sri Lanka , South Africa), the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff stated.

The ship is planned to be deployed for over a month in April 2025, and would be undertaking port calls at Dar-es-Salaam, Nacala, Port Louis, Port Victoria and Male and Joint surveillance of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of Tanzania, Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles, he pointed out.