'ZAPAD 2021' Exercise

Table of Contents

‘ZAPAD 2021’ Exercise- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 3: Security- Security challenges and their management in border areas; linkages of organized crime with terrorism.

Recently, the Indian Army has informed that a 200 members contingent of the Indian Army will participate in Exercise ZAPAD 2021.
Exercise ‘ZAPAD 2021’ is being held at Nizhniy in Russia from 3-16 September 2021.

About Exercise ‘ZAPAD 2021’: It is a Multi Nation exercise led by Russia.
Focus Area: ZAPAD 2021 is one of the theatre-level exercises of Russian Armed Forces and will focus primarily on operations against terrorists along with boosting anti-terror cooperation.
Participation of Countries: 17 countries from Eurasia and South Asia will also participate in the same exercise. Among these-
- 9 countries are Participating countries which include Mongolia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Russia, India, and Belarus.
- Other eight countries are Observers which include Pakistan, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Uzbekistan, and Sri Lanka.
India’s Participation:
- The NAGA Battalion group participating in the exercise will feature an all arms combined task force.
- The exercise aims to enhance military and strategic ties amongst the participating nations while they plan and execute this exercise.

About: Since 2003, the INDRA series of exercises were conducted as a bilateral naval exercise alternately between the two countries.
The first joint Tri-Services Exercise was conducted in 2017.
The last joint, tri-services exercise was conducted in India in December 2019. It was held simultaneously at Babina (near Jhansi), Pune, and Goa.
EXERCISE INDRA-21: 12th Edition of Indo-Russia joint military Exercise INDRA 2021 was held at Volgograd, Russia.
- The exercise entailed the conduct of counter-terror operations under the United Nations mandate by a joint force against international terror groups.