Nevertheless, the new tri-services between India and the US will take their strategic relationship to a higher level

NEW DELHI: India and the US have agreed to hold their first joint tri-services exercise at the inaugural 2+2 dialogue. This is only the second such tri-service exercise to be conducted by India with any other country after Russia.

The exercise is scheduled for next year, to be conducted off India’s eastern coast. The two nations on Wednesday committed to creation of a new, tri-services exercise and increase personnel exchanges between the respective militaries and defence organisations.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the tri-services joint exercise will take place off the eastern coast of India in 2019. “Today, India's defence forces carry out extensive training and joint exercises with the United States. Our joint exercises have acquired greater complexity and newer dimensions, both bilaterally and in wider formats. To enhance our synergies in this area, we have decided to carry out, for the first time, a tri-Services joint exercise with the United States off the eastern coast of India in 2019,” she said in a statement. 

However, this is only the second such exercise to be carried out by India with another nation. The first tri-services exercise with Russia was held in October last year. The exercise called INDRA-2017 was India’s way of balancing strategic relations with Russia and the US and send a message to China. Officials said that the first ever Indo-Russia Joint Tri Services Exercise was a combination of training and cross training in field conditions on land, sea and air, to achieve seamless integration.

Before this, INDRA exercises had been conducted only between respective armies, navies and air forces without the concurrent participation from other services. Seventeen such service specific exercises with the Russian defence forces were conducted since 2003.

Nevertheless, the new tri-services between India and the US will take their strategic relationship to a higher level. It comes in the backdrop of the two nations having had a history of their armies, navies and air forces exercising separately. The biggest one being the Malabar naval exercise, involving submarines.