Indian Army To Conduct Field Training Exercise With African Nations; Focus Is On Mine Action, Joint Peace Operations

The Africa-India field training exercise (AFIDNEX 2019) is scheduled to be conducted at Aundh military station and College of Military Engineering (CME), Pune, from 18 March to 27 March this year, reports Times of India.

A conference to work out the modalities of the AFINDEX 2019 was conducted at Pune recently with delegates from India, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Namibia, Mozambique, Uganda, Niger, Zambia and Rwanda in attendance.

"The joint military training aims at synergising humanitarian mine action and joint peace operations," TOI quoted from the Indian Army's statement.

"It is a positive step towards growing political and military ties with the member nations of the African continent and will boost the already strong strategic cooperation between the countries,” a senior Army officer was quoted by TOI as saying.

The Indian Army has been imparting mine detection and disposal training to various friendly nations. "Indian Army, over the years, has developed unique strategies detecting and disposing of different types of mines in varied geographic and weather conditions," TOI quoted another army official as saying.