KAZIND-2026: Indian Contingent Departs for Kazakhstan Exercise

A 60-member contingent of the Indian Armed Forces left on 28 September 2026 for Oskemen in Kazakhstan to take part in KAZIND-2026, the ninth edition of the India-Kazakhstan joint military exercise. The Ministry of Defence said the drill runs from 28 September to 11 October 2026. The Indian side is built mainly around a battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, with soldiers of other arms and services and personnel of the Indian Air Force. Kazakhstan is sending a contingent of the same size, drawn chiefly from its Land Forces.

What the two armies will train for

The stated aim is to raise interoperability and to sharpen the joint ability of the two forces to mount counter-terrorism operations in a sub-conventional setting under a United Nations mandate. Training is set in semi-urban and mountainous country, the kind of ground where terrorists take shelter. Planning and execution are to be done together, and two themes run through the schedule: air mobility, and the combined use of Unmanned Aerial Systems along with Counter-UAS capabilities that bring down hostile drones.

Drills on the programme

• Joint response to terrorist action, raids and search-and-destroy missions
• Cordon-and-search operations in built-up and hill terrain
• Securing of helipads and landing sites
• Special Heliborne Operations

A Joint Command Post and an Intelligence and Surveillance Centre will be set up so that both contingents plan and act off the same picture. The training ends in a full validation exercise in which the two sides apply the tactics, techniques and procedures they have rehearsed against a simulated terrorist threat.

Why the exercise matters

Kazakhstan is the largest of the Central Asian states and a partner India works with on regional security. The exercise lets each side learn from the other's operational experience, builds professional trust between the two militaries, and underlines what both governments describe as a shared stake in regional peace, stability and collective security.