Exercise DUSTLIK opens its seventh India-Uzbekistan edition

India and Uzbekistan begin their annual joint military drill in Uzbekistan's Namangan region, deepening a Central Asian defence partnership built around joint special operations.

What happened

• The Indian Armed Forces contingent departed for the 7th edition of the India–Uzbekistan joint military Exercise DUSTLIK, the two countries' flagship bilateral army-level drill.
• The exercise runs 12–25 April 2026 at the Gurumsaray Field Training Area in the Namangan region of Uzbekistan, in the country's Fergana Valley.
• The Indian side fields a 60-personnel contingent: 45 from the Indian Army (drawn mainly from a battalion of the MAHAR Regiment) and 15 from the Indian Air Force. The Uzbek side fields a roughly equal contingent from its Army and Air Force.
• The stated aim is to foster military cooperation and build combined capability for joint operations in semi-mountainous terrain, with a focus on physical fitness, joint planning, joint tactical drills and basic special-arms skills.
• Key operational aspects to be rehearsed include land navigation, strike missions on enemy bases, and the seizure of enemy-held areas, building toward a common command-and-control "operational algorithm" for both contingents.
• The training culminates in a 48-hour validation exercise centred on the preparation and execution of joint special operations aimed at neutralising unlawful armed groups.

Background & context

"Dustlik" means "friendship" in the Uzbek language, and the name captures what the exercise is meant to signal: a steady, institutional military relationship between India and Uzbekistan rather than a one-off engagement. The exercise was first held in November 2019 at Chirchiq, a garrison town near the Uzbek capital Tashkent. In its early editions the drill was framed largely around counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in semi-urban and mountainous settings — reflecting both countries' shared concern with cross-border terrorism and the security of the wider Central Asian neighbourhood.

DUSTLIK is an annual (yearly) exercise conducted alternately in India and Uzbekistan, so each edition is hosted on a different side in turn. The immediately preceding 6th edition was held in April 2025 at the Foreign Training Node, Aundh, near Pune, in India; the present 7th edition therefore returns to Uzbek soil at Gurumsaray. This alternating-host pattern is the single most testable structural fact about the exercise, because exam questions frequently ask which country a named bilateral exercise is conducted with and where the latest edition was held.

The exercise sits inside a broader strategic frame. Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia and a pivotal state in India's "Connect Central Asia" policy and the wider Extended Neighbourhood. Both nations are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), whose security agenda — counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, and regional stability through its RATS (Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure) mechanism — overlaps closely with what DUSTLIK rehearses on the ground. The defence relationship is one limb of a multi-dimensional partnership that also runs through connectivity (the International North–South Transport Corridor and access to the Iranian port of Chabahar), trade, and people-to-people ties.

It helps to place DUSTLIK within India's wider menu of bilateral exercises. India runs a named exercise with most of its significant defence partners, and a recurring exam trap is to scramble the country–exercise pairing or to mistake a land exercise for a naval one. DUSTLIK belongs to the army-level (land-forces) family of bilateral exercises with an air-force component, conducted with a single foreign partner. It is distinct from India's naval exercises (such as the bilateral maritime drills India holds with various navies) and from large multilateral exercises. The Central Asian limb of this menu is small and therefore easy to remember as a pair: DUSTLIK with Uzbekistan and KHANJAR with Kyrgyzstan are India's two recurring engagements in the region, which makes them a natural "match the pair" or "which of these exercises is with a Central Asian country" item.

The geography of the 2026 edition is itself worth noting. Namangan lies in the Fergana Valley, a densely populated, mountain-ringed basin shared by Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that has long been treated as a sensitive zone for militancy and cross-border movement in Central Asia. Choosing a field training area in such terrain aligns the exercise's stated focus — joint operations in semi-mountainous terrain and the neutralisation of unlawful armed groups — with a realistic operating environment, rather than a generic flat-ground rehearsal.

For Prelims

• Name & meaning: Exercise DUSTLIK — "Dustlik" is Uzbek for "friendship."
• Participants: a bilateral India–Uzbekistan exercise (only two countries; it is not a multilateral SCO drill).
• Edition & dates: 7th edition, 12–25 April 2026.
• Venue (2026): Gurumsaray Field Training Area, Namangan region, Uzbekistan (Fergana Valley).
• Cadence & hosting: annual, held alternately in India and Uzbekistan.
• Previous edition: 6th, April 2025 at Aundh (Pune), India.
• Origin: first held November 2019 at Chirchiq (near Tashkent), originally focused on counter-terror / counter-insurgency.
• Indian contingent: 60 personnel — 45 Army (mainly a MAHAR Regiment battalion) + 15 Indian Air Force; Uzbek side ~60 from its Army and Air Force.
• Domain & theme: joint operations in semi-mountainous terrain; land navigation, strike missions, seizure of enemy-held areas; a 48-hour validation exercise on neutralising unlawful armed groups.
• Nodal ministry: Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
• What it is NOT: DUSTLIK is not a naval or tri-services exercise and not a multilateral drill — it is a bilateral, primarily land-forces (Army-led) exercise with an Air Force component. It should not be confused with India's exercises with other partners (see the comparative set below). The MAHAR Regiment's participation does not make it a regiment-specific event; the Regiment simply provides the core of the Army contingent for this edition.

The comparative set (India's named bilateral army/military exercises with neighbours and partners): a "match the exercise to the country" or "how many of these are with X" question is best survived by carrying the full pairing. Indicative pairs commonly examined include — DUSTLIK → Uzbekistan; KHANJAR → Kyrgyzstan; NOMADIC ELEPHANT → Mongolia; MITRA SHAKTI → Sri Lanka; SURYA KIRAN → Nepal; MAITREE → Thailand; GARUDA SHAKTI → Indonesia; HAND-IN-HAND → China; INDRA → Russia; YUDH ABHYAS → United States; AL NAGAH → Oman; DHARMA GUARDIAN → Japan; VAJRA PRAHAR / TARKASH → counter-terror with the US. Within Central Asia specifically, DUSTLIK (Uzbekistan) pairs with KHANJAR (Kyrgyzstan) as India's two recurring army-level engagements.

How the exercise runs

The training is structured as a build-up rather than a single event. The contingents begin with a high standard of physical fitness and progress through joint planning, joint tactical drills and the basics of special-arms skills, before moving to the harder operational tasks. A central objective is to establish a unified operational algorithm linking the command-and-control structures of the two contingents — in plain terms, a common way of planning and giving orders so that soldiers from two different armies, with different doctrines and procedures, can act as one force. The Indian contingent uses the engagement both to familiarise itself with Uzbek operational procedures and drills and to share its own operational experience, so the learning runs in both directions.

The operational tasks rehearsed include land navigation, strike missions on enemy bases, and the seizure of enemy-held areas — the building blocks of a special-operations assault. The whole programme is then tested in a 48-hour validation exercise, a continuous, scenario-driven serial in which the combined force must apply the tactics it has practised, centred on the preparation and execution of joint special operations to neutralise unlawful armed groups. By design, the exercise is meant to leave both sides with shared Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) and improved interoperability, operational synergy and joint command-and-control coordination — the practical currency of any future combined operation.

Why it matters

For UPSC purposes the exercise is significant on three counts. First, it is an instrument of defence diplomacy: recurring joint drills convert a diplomatic relationship into operational habit, building the interoperability, shared command-and-control procedures, and personal "bonhomie and camaraderie" between soldiers that matter in any future coordinated response. Second, it advances India's strategic interest in Central Asia, a landlocked region that India has historically struggled to reach overland and where competing influences are strong; a steady military partnership with Uzbekistan, the region's demographic heavyweight, gives India a durable foothold. Third, the content of the exercise — joint special operations to neutralise unlawful armed groups in semi-mountainous terrain — speaks directly to the shared threat of terrorism and instability emanating from the wider region, an explicit concern of both governments and of the SCO security agenda. The exercise does not, on its own, resolve the structural problem India faces in Central Asia — the absence of reliable overland connectivity — but it keeps the security limb of the relationship active while connectivity projects mature.

For Mains