Indian participants will include senior officials from the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs besides the Service HQ. Senior veterans will also attend the conclave

NEW DELHI: India is set to host the first nine-day India-African Chiefs Conclave in Pune (Maharashtra) beginning March 21 in which chiefs of over 20 African armies will likely participate.

Army chiefs of 10 African countries have reportedly confirmed their participation at the conclave while military heads of 12 nations will send their representatives, sources said. The army chiefs of Congo, Niger, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, Seychelles, Gambia, Tanzania and Kenya are attending the conclave. The conclave will be held along with the second iteration of the Africa-India Field Training Exercise (AfIndEx).

Indian participants will include senior officials from the Ministries of Defence and External Affairs besides the Service HQ. Senior veterans will also attend the conclave. Contingents from over 20 countries will be participating in AfIndEx.

Calling it a landmark event, sources said the event “will provide a fillip to cooperation between the Indian Army and the armies of African nations while simultaneously addressing the capacity enhancement requirements of African armies.”

The objective of the conclave is to continue to build upon the initiatives taken to strengthen India-Africa relations, with a focus on enhancing peace and security. It is also meant to “learn from the African experience in cooperative security and management of security crisis situations.

The ‘Broad Program AfIndEx’ is to commence from March 21 at Pune and will culminate on March 30. Chief of Army Staff Gen Manoj Pande will also host an ‘India-Africa Chiefs Conclave’ on March 28, a day before the military exercise comes to an end on March 29. It will take place over two sessions and will be witnessed by the chiefs of African armies.

“The first session will explore the ‘key pillars of the India-Africa defence partnership. The second session will focus on the Indian defence industry’s outreach to Africa. Eminent speakers from Africa will form a part of the panel discussions. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is also scheduled to attend the conclave,” said a defence source. The Exercise is divided into four phases. Initially, the trainers will be trained. This will be followed by a ‘humanitarian mine action and a peace-keeping operations phase. Finally, a validation exercise will be conducted to assess the results of the training conducted.

The inaugural Africa-India Field Training Exercise-2019 was also held in March in Pune and 20 African Nations participated. Continuing with India’s focus on strengthening the defence ties, a similar conclave was held on the sidelines of the DefExpo 2020 in Lucknow. The Lucknow Declaration was issued that laid down the future path of cooperation between India and African nations in the defence sphere. Building on the Lucknow declaration, the India- Africa defence dialogue was held at Gandhinagar on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022.

India To Showcase Indigenous Weaponry

India will also showcase its indigenous defence equipment manufacturing capabilities at the conclave on March 29. The countries which are sending their personnel are Ethiopia (5), Ghana (10), Kenya (5), Lesotho (10), Niger (12), Seychelles (10), Tanzania (6), Uganda (10), and Zambia (10).