First joint conference of army chiefs of India and African countries

• On 28 March, the first joint conference of India and African countries took place in Pune.

• Defense Minister Rajnath Singh attended the conference as the chief guest.

• Army chiefs from 10 countries were present in the conference along with 31 delegates from African countries.

• As a part of defense cooperation, India has trained a large number of African military officers. India has military-to-military cooperation activities with about one-third of the 54 African countries.

• India is the biggest contributor to peacekeeping in Africa.

• The second India-Africa Defense Dialogue was to be held in 2022 on the sidelines of DefExpo 2022 in Gujarat.

• The second Africa-India joint military exercise AFINDEX 2023 is being held in Pune.