PIB TrackerVARUNA is in its 24th edition; the ASEAN exercise is in its 2nd
INS Trishul worked with a French nuclear attack submarine and a carrier at Toulon, and laid a wreath for 205 Indian soldiers of the World Wars.
What happened
- INS Trishul arrived at Toulon, France on 22 September 2026 for the 24th edition of Exercise Varuna.
- Sea phase alongside FDA Forbin, FLF La Fayette and the nuclear attack submarine SNA Suffren, with NH90 helicopters and Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft.
- Serials included anti-submarine, anti-surface and live-firing exercises and cross-deck helicopter landings.
- The crew visited Charles de Gaulle, Forbin and La Fayette, studying carrier operations and aviation practices.
- A wreath was laid at the Mazargues War Memorial, Marseille, for 205 Indian soldiers of the World Wars.
For Prelims
- Varuna: the annual India-France bilateral maritime exercise, now in its 24th edition - one of India's oldest continuous naval exercises with any partner.
- SNA Suffren: a Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarine. "SNA" is the French designation for a nuclear-powered attack submarine. Exercising against one is access few partners grant.
- Why anti-submarine warfare is the hard part: it requires a real submarine behaving like an adversary. Simulated serials teach procedure; a live SSN teaches detection against something genuinely quiet.
- Charles de Gaulle: France's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and the only CATOBAR carrier outside the United States Navy. India's carriers use STOBAR ski-jumps, so carrier practice aboard her is study of a different launch system.
- CECMED: the French Mediterranean maritime command at Toulon, whose Deputy Commander-in-Chief for Operations received the Commanding Officer.
- Mazargues War Memorial, Marseille: commemorates Indian soldiers who died in France during the World Wars - 205 are remembered there. Marseille was a principal landing point for Indian troops arriving in Europe in 1914.
- Cross-deck: operating each navy's helicopters from the other's flight deck, and exchanging personnel between ships. It is the most practical test of whether two navies can actually work together.
- The week's India-France record: space cooperation and Gaganyaan flight-surgeon training on 27 September (2315994, carded), the French minister's education meeting the same day (2316187), and this exercise - three ministries, one partnership.
For UPSC: India-France is the most substantive and least discussed of India's strategic partnerships, and editions are the honest way to measure depth. Use Varuna on defence diplomacy and interoperability, the Suffren and Charles de Gaulle serials on what access a mature partnership actually buys, and the contrast with newer exercise formats on how long such relationships take to build.
What it is NOT: No dates are given for the sea phase or for the exercise's conclusion, only the arrival on 22 September. No Indian aircraft or helicopters are named, and no personnel or sortie numbers for either side. No mention of the scenario or the level at which the serials were conducted. No comparison with the 23rd edition in scale or content. And no reference to the Indo-Pacific or to any operational context, in a release about the 24th iteration of a strategic partnership at sea.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.18 · GS3.20 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Exercise Varuna is in its 24th edition. The ASEAN-India Maritime Exercise, which began at Subic Bay three days before this release, is in its second. Both are described in the same official language of interoperability and mutual understanding, and the edition numbers say what the language does not: one relationship has twenty-two more years of shared procedure behind it than the other.
Substantiation (data)
What the editions bought is visible in the serials. INS Trishul exercised alongside the air defence destroyer Forbin, the frigate La Fayette and the nuclear attack submarine Suffren, with NH90 helicopters and Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft, across anti-submarine, anti-surface and live-firing exercises and cross-deck helicopter landings. The crew visited the carrier Charles de Gaulle for carrier operations and aviation practice, and the ship was received at Toulon with a ceremonial water cannon salute.
Position
The submarine is the measure of the relationship. Anti-submarine warfare can only be practised properly against a real submarine behaving like an adversary, and very few navies will put a nuclear attack boat into another country's exercise - the acoustic signature of an SSN is among the most closely held data any navy has. France doing it with India, and adding carrier familiarisation aboard Charles de Gaulle, is access that twenty-four editions earn and no communique can substitute for.
Counterpoint
One ship is still one ship. India sent a single frigate to Toulon while two other hulls ran consecutive multilateral exercises at Subic Bay, and the Raksha Mantri told the Navy two days earlier that Indian warships operate in the South China Sea, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Presence across three oceans delivered by single-ship deployments is presence with no depth behind it, and eighteen commissionings this year will not change that until they reach these waters.
Problematisation
The release describes a quarter-century of naval cooperation without naming a single strategic context - no Indo-Pacific, no Indian Ocean, no reference to why two navies seven thousand kilometres apart practise hunting submarines together. That register is deliberate and consistent with how India has described every maritime engagement this fortnight, from the Quad's Coast Guard observer mission to the ASEAN exercise. It is also the part that makes the activity legible only to people already counting editions.
Conclusion
Count editions rather than adjectives. Twenty-four years of Varuna have produced submarine and carrier access that newer partnerships cannot yet ask for, and the Mazargues wreath is a reminder that the relationship has older foundations still. The question is whether India can afford the same patience with ASEAN, where it is on edition two and sending the same two ships twice.
Deploys into: India-France strategic partnership · Defence diplomacy measured in exercise editions · Anti-submarine warfare and access to partner capabilities · Indian military history in Europe
Ministry of Defence · 2026-10-01 · PRID 2317552 · PIB source ↗