Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the six-day exercise, which will see India co-hosting with the Tanzania Peopleโs Defence Force. The event will bring together naval forces from Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and South Africa.
The exercise marks a major step for Indiaโs maritime diplomacy, reinforcing its role as a regional security provider while deepening strategic and economic ties with Africa, according to foreign-affairs specialist Robinder Sachdev, founder-president of the Imagindia Institute, a Delhi-based think tank.
Indiaโs naval presence in the region is not entirely new. The country already operates a coastal radar surveillance network in Mauritius, Seychelles and the Maldives under its Integrated Coastal Surveillance System. But โAIKEYME adds a layer of joint operational readinessโ to this infrastructure, enabling faster and more coordinated responses to maritime threats, Sachdev said.