India Ups Defence Ties With Egypt, Sends Army, Air Force For Op Bright Star

Enhancing joint capability, countering terrorism and greater military to military collaboration are some of the primary reasons why India has sent its Army and Air Force for the multi-domain, multilateral exercise.

Cairo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi during his visit to Egypt.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: In an effort to boost the strategic ties between New Delhi and Cairo after a brief hiatus, India has sent a contingent of the Army and Air Force for Operation Bright Star-23 that will be held from August 27 to September 16 at the Mohammed Naguib Military Base. Armed forces from the United States of America, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Qatar are also participating in the exercise.

Operation Bright Star is a biennial multilateral tri-service exercise but this is the first time that India has sent a contingent of the Air Force consisting of five MiG-29, two IL-78, two C-130 and two C-17 aircraft. Personnel from the IAF's Garud Special Forces, as well as those from the 28, 77, 78 and 81 Squadrons will be participating in the exercise. The IAF transport aircraft will also provide airlift to approximately 150 personnel from the Indian Army, according to the Ministry of Defence.

Although this is a multilateral exercise where the contingents of other countries will also be participating, this will also boost the growing strategic closeness between New Delhi and Cairo, highly placed sources told ABP Live, requesting anonymity.

According to the sources, while New Delhi is now eyeing Cairo as a potential market for its growing defence exports, Egypt wants India to consider it to be its partner in Asia for balancing its ties with Africa as well as the Arab world.

‘Deep Cooperation’ Between India And Egypt  

India is in talks with Egypt to sell at least 20 Tejas Mk-1A fighter planes, including the setting up of a Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility in that country. Cairo has also shown interest to acquire the BrahMos missile systems even as Egypt plans to diversify its weaponry.

According to the Ministry of Defence, “India and Egypt have had exceptional relationship and deep cooperation wherein the two jointly undertook development of aero-engine and aircraft in 1960s and training of Egyptian pilots was done by Indian counterparts.”

It said: “The relationship between the two civilizational countries was further strengthened with the recent visits by the Chief of Air Forces of the two countries and Indian Defence Minister and Prime Minister to Egypt. The two countries have also enhanced their joint training with regular exercises between their Armed Forces.”

When Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi visited India for the Republic Day celebrations in January this year, he became the first premier of that country to attend the event as the Chief Guest. Egypt has also emerged as a major hub of counterterrorism and works closely with the US in this area. It is a member of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, which was founded in September 2014.

One of the main objectives of Operation Bright Star is learning and training on how to counter emerging threats and enhance operability, according to the Indian Army.

“India and Egypt Defence cooperation has been progressing well with mutual high-level visits, exercises, training etc. The Indian Air Force has been participating in bilateral exercises with the Egyptian Air Force. The exercises are carried out as part of defence diplomacy due to reasons like learning best practices from each other, maintaining good military relations, increasing interoperability, political signalling, and showcasing of indigenous defence equipment etc,” said Anil Khosla, Air Marshal (Retd.) and former Vice Chief of the Indian Air Force.

He added: “The Indian Air Force is moving from bilateral to multilateral exercises. It has already participated in them but now it is hosting one in a few months. In future the defence exercises will become multilateral, multiservice and multidomain.”

In January this year, during President Sisi’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both sides decided to establish a joint working group on counterterrorism aimed at exchanging information and best practices.

According to a joint statement, “Prime Minister Modi and President Sisi expressed concern over the spread of terrorism across the world and agreed that it poses one of the most serious security threats to humanity. Both leaders condemned the use of terrorism as a foreign policy tool.”

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