India, Japan to hold joint air exercise to promote defence cooperation

The joint air exercise “Veer Guardian-2023” between India and Japan will take place at Japan’s Hyakuri Air Base the following week in an effort to strengthen bilateral air defence cooperation.

The Su-30 MKI, two C-17, and one IL-78 aircraft of India will all take part in the air exercise, which will run from January 12 to January 26. With four F-2 and four F-15 aircraft, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) will take part in the exercise.

IAF in a twitter post stated “Tomorrow, a contingent from the IAF will fly to Hyakuri Air Base in Japan for the inaugural Exercise Veer Guardian 2023, which will be held there alongside the Japan Air Self Defense Force from January 12 to January 26. Four Su-30 MKI, two C-17 Globemaster, and an IL-78 tanker from the IAF will participate.”

This is more than a month after the multilateral exercise Malabar, which was held at Yokosuka, Japan from November 8 to 15, and had the participation of India, the United States, Japan, and Australia.

Prior to it, in September 2022, six Indian ships, a submarine, and P8I, Mig-29K, and Dornier planes took part in the JIMEX 22 bilateral exercise with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) ships Izumo and Takanami close to Visakhapatnam.

For the 20th High-Level Meeting between the Indian Coast Guard and the Japanese Coast Guard, a team from the Indian Coast Guard led by the Director General visited Tokyo, Japan in the same month.