List of Joint Military Exercises of India 2020

As we all know that, In a Joint Military Exercise, a country displays its Military strength be it through weapons or through the showcase of soldiers training it is an important point of International Relations where the country engages in Military Diplomacy in a show of strength. India over the many years has participated in Joint Military Exercises with different countries across the world. Below the table, we share a List of Joint Military Exercises of India conducted in the year 2020-

List of Joint Military Exercises of India 2020

Name of Exercise	Participating Nations	Conducted at
Malabar-2020	India & Australia	Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea
SLINEX-20	India & Sri Lanka	Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
“Bongosagar”	India-Bangladesh (Navy Bilateral Exercise)	Bay of Bengal
PASSEX (Passage Exercise)	India & Australia (Navy Bilateral Exercise)	East Indian Ocean Region
Suraksha Kavach	Maharashtra Police and Indian Army	Lulla Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra
4th JIMEX 2020	India and Japan	North Arabian Sea
EX Indradhanush – V 2020	Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force (RAF)	Air Force Station Hindon, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh
AJEYA WARRIOR 2020	India and the United Kingdom	The United Kingdom
PASSEX (Passage Exercise)	India & US (Navy Bilateral Exercise)	Indian Ocean
Ajeya Warrior	India and the United Kingdom (Military Drill)	Salisbury Plains, the United Kingdom
DefExpo 2020	—	Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh
‘Sahyog-Kaijin’	India and Japan	Chennai
MILAN 2020	30 Countries ( Canceled)	Visakhapatnam
Matla Abhiyaan	Coastal security exercise	Kolkata, West Bengal
BIMSTEC disaster management exercise -2020	India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka & Myanmar	Puri (Odisha)
SAMPRITI-IX	India and Bangladesh	UMROI, Meghalaya, India
Naseem Al Bahr	India and Oman (Naval Exercise)	Mormugao Port, Goa

Why is military exercise required?

Military exercise has become an imperative part of the armed forces all around the world. They serve many purposes like:
It trains soldiers in how to act, how to think, and how to work together in times of conflict.
The military exercise is a method to showcase the power and might to other countries of the world.
It also improves the coordination as well as cooperation among friendly militaries of the world.
It provides an opportunity to test the precision of weapons and devices.
Training for Natural Disasters and Humanitarian Relief.
Military exercises are conducted as it serves many purposes like counter-terrorism, low-intensity conflict operations at Counter-Insurgency etc.
Military exercises help Armed Forces to train themselves for Humanitarian Relief in case of Natural Calamity or Disaster.

The Indian military exercises can be segregated into 3 categories:

Domestic exercise
Bilateral Exercise
Multilateral exercise

List of Joint Military Exercises of India 2020

Domestic Military Exercises of India –This exercise aims to improve internal engagements and there can be inter-services or intra-services depending on nature and its application. List of military domestic Military Exercises of India:

S. No.	Exercise Name	Remarks
1.	GANDIV VIJAY	Conducted by the Chetak corps of South Western Command of Indian Army in Mahajan field firing ranges of Rajasthan in May 2018. It was based on offensive operations through joint air-land battle in a network-centric environment employing modern technology.
2.	VIJAY PRAHAR	Conducted by the South Western Command of Indian Army. The month-long exercise was aimed to orchestrate a wide spectrum of threats which are planned to be tackled through high tempo joint air and land operation.
3.	PASCHIM LEHAR-18	Tri-service maritime exercise, conducted by Indian Navy off western coast in the Arabian Sea. The exercise is aimed at improving the interoperability between the Indian Navy, Indian Army, Indian Air Force, and Coast Guard.
4.	Vayu Shakti 2019	It is an Air Force Exercise conducted once in every 3 years. It was previously held in 2016 codenamed ‘Iron Fist’. It is a firepower demonstration exercise held at Pokhran, Rajasthan.

Bilateral Military Exercises of India:Bilateral Exercise as the name suggests, is a military exercise that takes place between two countries. An example would be the “Yudh Abhyas Exercise”between India & the US. Below we share some important Bilateral Military Exercises of India with different countries across the world.

Bilateral Military Exercises of Indian Army
S. No.	Exercise Name	Participant Nations
1.	HAND IN HAND	China
2.	SURYA KIRAN	Nepal
3.	SAMPRITI	Bangladesh
4.	MITRA SHAKTI	Sri Lanka
5.	YUDH ABHYAS	USA
6.	VAJRA PRAHAR	USA
7.	IMBAX-2017	Myanmar
8.	HARIMAU SHAKTI	Malaysia
9.	GARUDA SHAKTI	Indonesia
10.	VINBAX-2018	Vietnam
11.	EKUVERIN	Maldives
12.	INDRA	Russia
14.	AL NAGAH	Oman
15.	DHARMA GUARDIAN	Japan
16.	MAITREE	Thailand
17.	AJEYA WARRIOR	UK
18.	PRABAL DOSTYK	Kazakhstan
19.	NOMADIC ELEPHANT	Mongolia
21.	LAMITIYE	Seychelles
23.	BOLD KURUKSHETRA	Singapore
24.	KHANJAR	Kyrgyzstan
Bilateral Military Exercises of Indian Navy
25.	SLINEX	Sri Lanka
26.	INDRA NAVY	Russia
27.	KONKAN	UK
28.	VARUNA	France
29.	NASEEM-AL-BAHR	Oman
30.	Sahyog HOP TAC	Vietnam
31.	IND-INDO CORPAT	Indonesia
32.	SIMBEX	Singapore
33.	IMCOR	Myanmar
34.	SLINEX	Sri Lanka
35.	INDRA NAVY	Russia
Bilateral Military Exercises of Indian Air Force
36.	GARUDA	France
37.	EASTERN BRIDGE	Oman
38.	AVIAINDRA-18	Russia
39.	SIAM BHARAT	Thailand
40.	DESERT EAGLE	UAE
41.	INDRADHANUSH	UK
42.	RED FLAG	USA

Multilateral Military Exercises of India:Multilateral Exercise as the name suggests, involves the forces and military of more than two countries. An example would be the “COBRA-GOLD Exercise” which was conducted in Russia between China, Tajikistan, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan & Uzbekistan.

S. No.	Exercise Name	Remarks
1.	RIMPAC	It is the world’s largest maritime exercise. It was first conducted in 1971 and is held biannually near Honolulu, Hawaii (USA). The Exercise is overlooked by the US Navy’s Pacific fleet. The recent 2018 edition saw 26 countries participating which included India.
2.	MALABAR	An annual trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, Japan, and India as permanent partners. It originally began in 1992 as a bilateral exercise between India and the US. Later in 2015, Japan became a permanent partner
3.	MILEX-18	First joint military exercise between BIMSTEC countries, conducted in Pune, Maharashtra. All member BIMSTEC countries, except Thailand and Nepal, took an active part in this exercise. The main aim is to promote practices in areas of counter-terrorism.
4.	PEACE MISSION	A Counter Terror Military Exercise, held in Russia in September 2018, under the framework of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). For the first time, arch-rivals India and Pakistan took part in it.
5.	Samvedna-2018	The first multilateral Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise of Indian Air Force (IAF) in association with South Asian Region nations, was held off the coast of Kerala.
6.	Ex COBRA GOLD	It is the largest Asia-Pacific military exercise held in Thailand every year.
7.	KAKADU	Started in 1993, it is a multilateral regional maritime engagement exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Navy. It derives its name from the Kakadu National Park.
8.	ARF DiR Ex	It stands for ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise (ARF DiR Ex). It is aimed at organizing a large-scale disaster relief exercise. It was 1st held in 2009, & takes place biannually. It is co-hosted by one ASEAN member states and one non-ASEAN ARF member.
9.	Ex KOMODO	A biennial multilateral Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercise, conducted for the first time by the Indonesian Navy in April 2014 at Batam, Indonesia.