Indian Navy team completes training to Malagasy Special Forces in Madagascar

An Indian mobile training team has completed capacity building and training of 50 Malagasy Special Forces officers. The Malagasy special forces consisted of both the navy and army forces of Madagascar. A five-member Indian team had reached Madagascar earlier this month onboard the Indian Navy ship INS Jalashwa, carrying humanitarian aid for the island nation. 

The training lasted for 14 days from March 14-28. The training, which took place in the port city of Antsiranana, focused on bringing reforms to the Malagasy forces to build their capacity to protect the country’s resources. Madagascar’s Defence Minister Major General Leon Jean Richard Rakotonirina thanked the Indian government for sending a team of experts to train Madagascar’s special forces. 

“It is unprecedented in the history of our nation that land and marine forces did joint training. The focus of this training is to reform Malagasy forces and to build their capacity to protect the island and its natural resources and biodiversity,” said Rakotonirina.

'Reflects growing defence ties'

General Richard Rakotonirina thanked his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and India’s ambassador to Madagascar Abhay Kumar. The Indian embassy in Madagascar and Comoros shared a post on Twitter upon completion of the training, saying “It reflects growing defence ties between the two Indian Ocean neighbours". The training was conducted under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of 'SAGAR' or Security and Growth for All in the Region. 

India is a major player in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), where it provides special assistance to strategically important countries, including Madagascar and Maldives. Earlier in February, Madagascar’s defence minister visited India for Aero India 2021, where he also met with Rajnath Singh. During the expo, Singh announced New Delhi’s plan to increase investment in defence manufacturing by more than $10 billion in the next four years. India is looking to equip IOR countries with hi-tech defence technologies and Madagascar has some role to play.

(Image Credit: @IndembTana/Twitter)