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Yudh Abhyas demonstrates growing India-U.S. partnership

FORUM Staff

Indian and United States military forces are holding joint military drills in November 2022 to enhance high-altitude training and foster increased cooperation between the nations. The two-week exercise started November 15 in Auli, Uttarakhand, in the Himalayas of northeastern India. Soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Infantry Brigade, 11th Airborne Division, and the Indian Army’s Assam Regiment are participating.

The annual Yudh Abhyas exercise, which translates as “war practice,” is designed to exchange “best practices, tactics, techniques and procedures between the armies of the two nations,” the Indian Ministry of Defence (MOD) said.

The training focuses on peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, the MOD said. Field exercises involve integrated battle groups, force multipliers, operational logistics, mountain warfare skills, casualty evacuation, combat medical aid and combat engineering. Additional training involves unmanned aerial systems and techniques to counter them, as well as information operations.

The exercise highlights the growing defense relationship between India and the U.S. In 2016, the U.S. designated India a major defense partner to cooperate on regional stability, and in April 2022 the nations signed a space situational awareness agreement to support information sharing and cooperation in space.

Additionally, the countries have strengthened cooperation in cyberspace through training and exercises, and expanded information sharing across all warfighting domains, the U.S. Department of Defense said.

“We recently concluded an agreement to work together on air-launched unmanned aerial vehicles through our defense technology and trade initiative,” U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in an April 11 statement.

“And today, we agreed to launch new supply chain cooperation measures that will let us more swiftly support each other’s priority defense requirements.”

The partners are increasingly focused on the People’s Republic of China, which seeks “to refashion the region, and the international system more broadly, in ways that serve its interests,” Austin said.

U.S. Army Pacific Maj. Jonathan Lewis told Nikkei Asia news magazine that Yudh Abhyas 2022 focuses on cold-weather operations at high altitude, an environment that poses unique challenges.

The location is also significant: less than 100 kilometers from the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the 3,400-kilometer-long disputed border region between India and China, which was the scene of deadly clashes between the nations’ forces as recently as 2020.

Although Yudh Abhyas previously was staged in Uttarakhand, including in 2014, 2016 and 2018, those exercises occurred in the foothills, more than 300 kilometers from the LAC, according to Jeff Smith, a research fellow for South Asia at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. “This is a new development,” Smith told Nikkei Asia.

The drills signal that New Delhi is willing to cooperate with the U.S. despite Beijing’s desire otherwise, Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the magazine. “This is a sign that India’s not giving China a veto on its partnerships.”

“The exercise and its location are a reflection of the progress and growing comfort level in U.S.-India relations over the last few years,” Madan said, noting that the drills come on the 60th anniversary of the 1962 Sino-Indian war, when the U.S. aided India.

Yudh Abhyas 2021, which also focused on high-altitude, cold-climate training, was conducted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. (Pictured: An Indian and U.S. Soldier train on weapons during exercise Yudh Abhyas in Alaska in October 2021.)

IMAGE CREDITS: ALEJANDRO PEÑA/U.S. AIR FORCE

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