India and 10 African countries have completed a first-of-its-kind naval exercise in the Indian Ocean. The six-day drill, known as the Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (Aikeyme), ended April 18. The exercise, co-hosted by the Indian Navy and the Tanzania People’s Defense Force, was held at Dar es Salaam.
Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and South Africa also participated in the exercise, which included harbor and port phases.
During Aikeyme’s opening ceremony, Stergomena Lawrence Tax, Tanzania’s minister of Defense and National Service, highlighted the goal of establishing an enduring framework of maritime security, including innovation and information sharing.
Tax also reaffirmed Tanzania’s commitment to hosting future editions of Aikeyme, which are to be conducted every other year, and emphasized the necessity of collaboration to combat maritime sea crimes such as drug trafficking, illegal fishing and piracy. Last year, the Indian Navy arrested 35 Somali pirates three months after they hijacked a vessel off the Somalia coast. All 17 of the vessel’s crew members were rescued.
“Over the past 10 years, the Indian Navy has deepened its partnerships with navies and agencies of IOR [Indian Ocean Region] countries to enhance maritime security in consonance with the government’s vision of SAGAR [Security and Growth for All in the Region],” Vice Adm. Tarun Sobti, deputy chief of India’s Naval Staff, told Indian newspaper The Economic Times in late March.
Aikeyme’s harbor phase, featuring joint training sessions for Indian Navy and Tanzanian Navy personnel, covered damage control, firefighting, seamanship, small arms and boat procedures. It included tabletop and command post exercises and a defense exposition during which 22 Indian companies showcased advanced technologies, including surveillance and communication systems.
The sea phase included seamanship; search and rescue missions; visit, board, search and seizure procedures; small arms firing and helicopter operations.
Alongside Aikeyme, India for the first time renamed an Indian Navy Ship, the Sunaya, to an Indian Ocean Ship, the Sagar, for a six-week deployment through the western part of the IOR that began on April 5. In addition to Indian Sailors, the crew included 44 personnel from Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, the Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
The Sunaya conducted joint surveillance of the exclusive economic zones of multiple participating nations and made port calls in Dar es Salaam; Nacala, Mozambique; Port Louis, Mauritius; Port Victoria, the Seychelles; and Malé, the Maldives.
Aikeyme marked an expansion of military cooperation aimed at refining maritime security and countering China’s growing influence in the region.
“Working with Africa on regional priorities and managing some of the regional challenges in the maritime space is becoming more vital for India,” Harsh Pant, director of the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, told African Business. “But I think it also conforms with India’s wider foreign policy goals, which have focused on the Global South.”
In recent years, India has worked to deepen security ties with African countries. India hosted its first India-Africa Army Chiefs Conclave in March 2023 along with its second Africa-India Field Training Exercise in Pune. Since December 2024, the Indian Navy or Indian Coast Guard has conducted bilateral exercises with Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles. It also has provided coastal surveillance radar systems to Mauritius and the Seychelles and conducted joint hydrographic surveys with them. India has established monitoring stations in northern Madagascar, Mauritius and the Seychelles to track maritime activity and boost security in the western Indian Ocean, including the Gulf of Aden and the Mozambique Channel.
India’s defense exports to African island countries are mostly donations of old or surplus equipment, including offshore-patrol vessels, advanced light helicopters and Dornier-228 maritime-patrol aircraft. India also provides defense lines of credit to help African nations acquire Indian defense equipment. Mauritius and the Seychelles, for example, have each received $100 million credit lines, the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported.
India also has helped establish defense academies in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, along with a military war game center in Uganda. Trainers have visited Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nigeria in November 2024, he and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu pledged increased collaboration in counterterrorism, intelligence sharing and maritime security.