The eighth edition of Exercise Shakti, the flagship joint military training between India and France, came to a close this Thursday at Camp Larzac in La Cavalerie, France. The Indian Army, in an official statement, confirmed the successful completion of this bilateral engagement, aimed at enhancing tactical coordination, mutual trust, and interoperability between the two forces.
The Indian contingent, composed of 90 soldiers primarily from the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, trained alongside the French Army’s 13th Half-Brigade of the Foreign Legion (13e DBLE). Over the course of the drill, the troops engaged in a variety of intense mission-specific scenarios, tailored toward sub-conventional warfare and hybrid combat conditions.
The exercise featured advanced modules such as combat shooting, urban warfare training, complex obstacle navigation, Electronic Warfare (EW) integration, and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) operations. A major milestone of the engagement was a 96-hour non-stop field simulation, testing both forces’ endurance, joint decision-making, and real-time planning capabilities under high-stress, multi-domain scenarios.
India’s Ambassador to France, Sanjeev Singla, visited the troops at Lodev during the exercise. His interaction with the soldiers and commendation of their professionalism served as a morale booster. The Indian Embassy in France later highlighted his visit as a symbol of the ever-strengthening diplomatic and defense bond between New Delhi and Paris.
According to the French Embassy in India, Shakti-VIII provided a vital platform for preparing both nations’ armed forces for intense, sub-conventional warfare, aligned with Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Training took place in realistic, semi-urban terrains to simulate modern combat conditions.
The Indian Army emphasized that this drill underlines the growing strategic alignment between India and France, reaffirming their shared commitment to regional peace, collective security, and operational synergy.
Exercise Shakti has become a cornerstone of Indo-French defense ties, offering a robust mechanism for knowledge-sharing and readiness enhancement in an increasingly complex global security landscape.
