GOA, October 8 — The Indian Navy and the French Navy on Thursday concluded the 24th edition of their flagship bilateral maritime exercise 'Varuna 2026' across the Arabian Sea, featuring high-tempo tactical maneuvers, cross-deck aviation operations, and advanced anti-submarine warfare (ASW) serials.
The Indian naval task group—spearheaded by indigenously engineered stealth guided-missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam, frigate INS Teg, and Boeing P-8I maritime patrol aircraft—operated alongside a French Carrier Strike Group and multi-mission air defense frigates. Tactical evolutions simulated contested maritime environments, including coordinated tracking of subsurface contacts, surface live-firing drills, and electronic warfare integration.
The Ministry of Defence highlighted that Exercise Varuna underscores the maturity of the India-France Strategic Partnership, operationalized by reciprocal logistics sharing agreements and shared geopolitical convergence in preserving freedom of navigation across the Western Indian Ocean and international sea lanes of communication (SLOCs).
Bilateral maritime agreements, the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), and mutual logistics support pacts are frequent subjects across UPSC Civil Services (GS-II: International Relations; GS-III: Security Architecture) and Defence examinations (NDA, CDS, AFCAT). Candidates should note that the Varuna series originated in 1993, assumed its formal nomenclature in 2001, and complements other bilateral drills including Exercise Shakti (Army) and Exercise Garuda (Air Force).