India launches biggest-ever joint naval exercises in Africa

India has launched its biggest-ever joint naval exercise with African nations, part of a push to boost its influence on the continent and presence in the Indian Ocean, where China is exercising growing commercial and military clout.

Indian government and military officials, including deputy defence minister Sanjay Seth, inaugurated the six-day exercises, which are being co-hosted by Tanzania and will include eight other countries including Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius and South Africa in Dar es Salaam on Sunday.

Analysts said the manoeuvres were part of New Delhi’s broader ambitions to play a more assertive role in maritime operations, including anti-piracy efforts, and deepen ties on the continent, where its influence has been diminished by rivals including China as well as emerging competitors Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Indian officials said they planned to make the exercises — which will include both a “harbour phase” and a “sea phase” — a biennial event.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who met several of his African counterparts in February, last week flagged off the a flagship Indian patrol vessel, INS Sunayna, which was deployed in the south-western Indian Ocean alongside destroyer INS Chennai and other ships with a joint crew of participating nations.

“Qualitatively, this exercise is quite a new thing,” said Sudarshan Shrikhande, a former Indian head of naval intelligence and adjunct professor at the Indian Naval War College in Goa, adding that the drills were “part of a growing diplomatic and economic engagement with Africa, where the big player is China”.

The Indian Navy has played a growing role in counter-piracy operations, helping project the country as a regional security power. During a visit to Mauritius last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted to cement the stature of the naval forces as the “preferred security partner” and “first responder” in the Indian Ocean.

In March 2024, the Indian Navy staged a commando-type rescue of the MV Ruen, a Bulgarian-owned cargo ship that had been hijacked by Somali pirates in the Arabian Sea.

“India’s recent initiatives in the western Indian Ocean reflect a growing ambition to position itself as a maritime power with regional responsibility,” said Abhijit Singh, a retired naval officer and former head of the maritime policy initiative at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

But those ambitions should be “tempered with realism”, Singh added. “While these engagements project an image of leadership, they also expose a gap between India’s strategic ambitions and its material capabilities.”

Under Modi, India has also sought to promote itself as a leader of the developing world, hosting two “Voice of the Global South” summits and successfully pushing for the African Union’s permanent admission to the G20 during its presidency of the group of nations in 2023.

However, officials and analysts have conceded that India remains far from being able to match China’s commercial or military edge.

India traded goods worth more than $83bn with African countries in 2023-24, up from $68.5bn in 2011-12 but less than a third of the continent’s turnover with China, its largest trading partner.

As part of the drills, an Indian ship will be deployed for more than a month to undertake port calls in Africa, including in Dar es Salaam, where the Adani Group has a container terminal. 

“India is trying to step up its role in Africa,” said Liberata Mulamula, a senior Tanzanian lawmaker and former foreign minister. “They’re maybe not as vocal and as visible as other countries like China and Russia, but everyone is trying to catch up with Africa and now India is doing it on defence.” 

India has also been unsettled by China’s overtures towards its neighbours, including Sri Lanka, which Modi visited earlier this month, and the Maldives, whose Beijing-friendly president was elected in 2023 on an “India Out” campaign.

More recently, it has been concerned about last year’s revolution in Bangladesh that toppled Sheikh Hasina, a Modi ally. The country’s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, visited Beijing last month. 

“India is now contending with China on multiple fronts, from its south Asian neighbourhood to the Indian Ocean region,” said Praveen Donthi, senior analyst for India with the Crisis Group.

New Delhi was “quite alert”, he added, to China’s growing commercial and military activity at ports in the region ranging from the Bay of Bengal to the Horn of Africa, and is working to bolster its international presence. “The India-Africa maritime exercise is one such effort,” he said.

Among the countries participating in the exercises is Djibouti, which is home to five foreign naval outposts, including one from the US and China’s first overseas military base.

The small country, which is in an area vital to global commerce at the southern end of the Red Sea, opposite Yemen, has been affected by Houthi rebel attacks on shipping lines.

“India exercises leadership in the Indian Ocean region and is emerging as an important presence here,” said Korir Sing’Oei, Kenya’s principal secretary for foreign affairs.

“Because of the critical juncture in which we are, it is countries like India and China that we are looking up to,” he added. “Even if we see there is competition between them in Africa there is no hegemonic kind of control per se at this point in time.”