TOULON (FRANCE) / NEW DELHI, October 13 — The Indian Navy and the French Navy (Marine Nationale) on Tuesday successfully concluded the 24th edition of the bilateral maritime exercise 'VARUNA 2026', culminating days of high-tempo operational drills and live-firing surface maneuvers across the Western Mediterranean Sea.
According to the official communique issued by the Ministry of Defence, the Indian Navy's deployed task group—comprising an indigenously built guided-missile stealth frigate, a fleet replenishment tanker, and a detachment of P-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft—trained alongside the French Carrier Strike Group centered around the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, supported by multi-mission air defence destroyers. The joint naval task forces executed complex anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tracking, cross-deck fighter sorties with Rafale Marine aircraft, combined tactical surface engagement, and replenishment-at-sea (UNREP) procedures.
Naval strategists noted that staging bilateral naval operations in the Mediterranean Sea demonstrates the Indian Navy's outward projection capabilities and deepens interoperability under the reciprocal Logistics Support Agreement inked between New Delhi and Paris. Both navies reaffirmed shared operational doctrines safeguarding vital Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs) against maritime asymmetry.
Key bilateral military exercises between India and France (VARUNA for Navy, GARUDA for Air Force, SHAKTI for Army, and FRINJEX), the 2018 Reciprocal Logistics Support Agreement, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS founded by India in 2008), and maritime chokepoints spanning Bab-el-Mandeb to the Strait of Gibraltar are high-yield topics across UPSC Civil Services (GS-II: International Relations & Maritime Security) and CDS examinations.