Not just US: US Navy personnel on board USS Kitty Hawk during the Malabar exercise

New Delhi, Sept. 10: The defence ministry today showcased military engagements lined up with Russia, China, Thailand and South Africa after being pilloried by the Left for a perceived pro-Pentagon tilt with the Malabar war games that concluded yesterday.

The Centre is on a drive to show that its military engagements, such as exercises, will be kept multilateral.

Army, air force and naval contingents will be participating in drills with the UK, Russia, China, and even South Africa and Brazil, between now and April 2008, beginning with a special forces and airborne war game in Russia, the seventh episode in the Indra series that began in October 2005.

An elementary army drill with the Chinese is likely in southern China. The navies of the two countries have been engaged in search-and-rescue exercises. None of them is as complex and large or frequent as the exchanges with the US over the last three years.

More than 400 troops from India will practise tactical planning and manoeuvres in Pskov, south-east of St Petersburg, beginning tomorrow.

The scenario for Indra-07 is a counter-terrorism mission under a UN mandate. It will be on for 10 days and will cover “multi-directional mass airborne insertion” (dropping of paratroopers into hostile territory) with helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and vehicles to cross watery obstacles.

Defence ministry sources said the exercise will culminate in “a realistic simulated joint operational exercise involving surveillance, acquiring and assessing of intelligence; joint planning; multi-directional mass airborne insertion and tactical paradrop; regrouping into joint task forces and joint teams; followed by a series of counter-terrorist operations”.

The objective will be to “eliminate terrorist leadership operating from a neutral country at their request”.

The army chief and chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Joginder Jaswant Singh, and defence secretary Vijay Singh will be in Pskov to see the drills.

Defence minister A.K. Antony is likely to visit shortly afterwards for an annual meeting of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Committee on Military Technical Cooperation.

Defence sources said military drills with Thailand called Exercise Maitree were on in Jharkhand at the same time as the Malabar exercise.

This month, troops from the Indian and UK armies will also conduct drills in snow-covered areas of Ladakh in Exercise Himalayan Warrior.

The Indian Navy is also planning joint exercises with the South African and Brazilian counterparts, for the first time among the three countries, in April 2008.

The chief of the South African Army, Lt General Solly Zacharia Shoke, is currently in India for a week’s visit.