An exercise in its twenty-fourth edition is not news in the way a new capability is. It is something more useful to understand: evidence of a relationship that has outlasted four Indian governments, several French ones, and every shift in the strategic weather since the Cold War ended.
INS Trishul arrived at Toulon, France, on 22 September 2026 to take part in the 24th edition of the bilateral maritime exercise VARUNA between the Indian Navy and the French Navy. The exercise involves professional engagements in harbour and at sea, including cross-deck visits and operational interactions.
The same frigate was at Alexandria last week, and we covered that call in our piece on INS Trishul's four days in Alexandria. This is the same deployment continuing — which is itself worth noticing, because a single ship working the Mediterranean from Egypt to southern France in a fortnight is what an operational deployment looks like, as opposed to a series of unconnected visits.
The series, and what its age means
India and France have conducted bilateral maritime exercises since May 1993. The series was given the name VARUNA — after the Vedic god of the waters — in 2001. The 23rd edition was held in the Arabian Sea in March 2025; the 24th is in French waters, the venue alternating between the two countries.
Thirty-three years of exercising is a different kind of fact from a contract or a commissioning, and the significance is worth stating precisely rather than in the language of joint statements.
Navies that exercise repeatedly over decades accumulate things that cannot be created quickly. Procedures converge — signals, formations, the vocabulary used on a bridge-to-bridge circuit. People accumulate: an officer who took part as a lieutenant is a commanding officer at the fifteenth edition and a flag officer at the twenty-fourth, and the two navies end up with a cohort at every rank who have worked with the other. And familiarity with platforms builds, which matters when two navies operate some of the same equipment.
That last point is not incidental in this case. India operates Rafale aircraft, including the Rafale-M for naval aviation, and Scorpène-class submarines built at Mazagon Dock under Project 75. Two navies flying and diving the same designs have a technical conversation available to them that most partners do not.
Why France is an Indian Ocean power
This is the part candidates most often get wrong, because France is filed mentally as a European country and the Indian Ocean is not thought of as European water.
France holds overseas territories in the Indian Ocean — Réunion and Mayotte — and territories in the Pacific. Those are not colonies in the historical sense; they are part of France, and their inhabitants are French citizens voting in French elections. The consequence is that France has sovereign territory, an exclusive economic zone and resident population in the Indian Ocean, and therefore a permanent national interest in its security rather than an expeditionary one.
France maintains a standing military presence in the region, with forces based at Réunion and in the wider Indo-Pacific, and it is one of the few European states with the ability to sustain naval operations at that distance. This is why France is a member of the Indian Ocean Commission and takes part in Indian Ocean regional mechanisms — and why India and France describe their cooperation in the Indo-Pacific as a shared-neighbourhood matter rather than a distant partnership.
The strategic relationship rests on a Strategic Partnership established in 1998 — notable for its timing, immediately after India's nuclear tests, when much of the world was imposing sanctions and France was among the first major powers to resume substantive engagement. That history is the reason the relationship is described in Delhi as unusually reliable.
Two practical instruments matter more than the declarations:
The reciprocal logistics support agreement, signed in 2018, allows each country's armed forces to use the other's bases for refuelling, replenishment and repair. Its effect is geographic rather than ceremonial. Indian ships gain access to French facilities across the Indian Ocean and beyond; French ships gain Indian ports. For a navy operating far from home, the binding constraint is fuel, water, food and spares — and an agreement of this kind converts a partner's base into an available one. It belongs with the same family of arrangements India has concluded with several partners, and it is what makes a deployment like INS Trishul's practical.
Defence procurement is the second: Rafale and Rafale-M aircraft, Scorpène submarines with technology transfer, and engine and propulsion cooperation. France's willingness to transfer technology rather than only sell platforms is the feature India values, and the deep-technology dimension of the wider relationship is described in our explainer on Bharat Innovates and the India-France deep-tech partnership.
Harbour and sea, again
Varuna follows the two-phase structure common to bilateral naval exercises: professional engagements and cross-deck visits in harbour, followed by activity at sea. We set out why the harbour phase is preparation rather than hospitality in our explainer on the shape of SLINEX, and the same reasoning applies here — frequencies, callsigns, signals and procedures are settled alongside before they are used underway.
Cross-deck visits deserve a word of their own. Officers and sailors from each navy spend time aboard the other's ships, seeing how another professional service runs a bridge, a machinery control room and a damage-control organisation. It is the cheapest form of professional education available to a navy, and it is one of the reasons a long-running exercise series produces better officers on both sides than the exercise objectives alone would suggest.
What distinguishes Varuna from most of India's bilateral exercises is the complexity it has reached over two decades. Editions have involved aircraft carriers, submarines, maritime patrol aircraft and integrated anti-submarine and air-defence serials — the higher end of what two navies can do together, and a level most bilateral exercises never reach because it requires trust built over exactly the period this series has run.
Keeping the exercises apart
The most reliable question format on this topic pairs an exercise with the wrong country, so the set is worth holding together.
Varuna is France, navies. INDRA is Russia. SLINEX is Sri Lanka. SIMBEX is Singapore. Konkan is the United Kingdom. AUSINDEX is Australia. Malabar is multilateral — India, the United States, Japan and Australia. MILAN is multinational and hosted by India.
And keep the services straight: Varuna is naval, while India-France also conduct Garuda (air forces) and Shakti (armies). One country, three exercises, three services — which is the form the harder version of this question takes.
🔑 Revision block
- The event: INS Trishul arrived at Toulon, France, on 22 September 2026 for the 24th edition of Exercise VARUNA
- Participants: Indian Navy and French Navy — bilateral
- Origin: India-France bilateral maritime exercises since May 1993; series named VARUNA in 2001
- The name: Varuna, the Vedic god of the waters
- 23rd edition: Arabian Sea, March 2025 — the venue alternates between the two countries
- Structure: harbour phase (professional engagements, cross-deck visits) and sea phase
- France in the Indian Ocean: holds Réunion and Mayotte as part of France, with resident citizens and an exclusive economic zone; maintains a standing military presence; member of the Indian Ocean Commission
- Strategic Partnership: established 1998, immediately after India's nuclear tests
- Reciprocal logistics support agreement: signed 2018 — mutual access to each other's bases for refuelling, replenishment and repair
- Shared platforms: Rafale and Rafale-M aircraft; Scorpène-class submarines under Project 75 at Mazagon Dock
- India-France exercises by service: Varuna navies, Garuda air forces, Shakti armies
- Do not confuse: INDRA (Russia), SLINEX (Sri Lanka), SIMBEX (Singapore), Konkan (United Kingdom), AUSINDEX (Australia), Malabar (multilateral — India, US, Japan, Australia), MILAN (multinational, hosted by India)
- INS Trishul: Talwar-class guided missile frigate, commissioned 2003
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Exercise Varuna is conducted between India and: (a) Russia (b) France (c) the United Kingdom (d) Australia
→ (b) — INDRA is the Russian exercise.
Q2. The India-France bilateral naval exercise series was given the name 'Varuna' in: (a) 1993 (b) 1998 (c) 2001 (d) 2005
→ (c) — the exercises themselves began in May 1993.
Q3. Which of the following Indian Ocean territories is part of France? (a) Zanzibar (b) Socotra (c) Diego Garcia (d) Réunion
→ (d) — along with Mayotte; their inhabitants are French citizens.
Q4. The India-France Strategic Partnership was established in: (a) 1998 (b) 2005 (c) 2010 (d) 2015
→ (a) — immediately after India's nuclear tests.
Q5. The reciprocal logistics support agreement signed by India and France in 2018 allows: (a) Joint command of naval operations (b) Automatic transfer of defence technology (c) Each country's forces to use the other's bases for refuelling, replenishment and repair (d) Permanent stationing of Indian forces in France
→ (c) — it extends a navy's practical reach without extending its own base network.
Q6. Which submarine class does India build under Project 75 with French design collaboration? (a) Kilo class (b) Scorpène class (c) Arihant class (d) Kalvari-Akula class
→ (b) — built at Mazagon Dock.
Q7. The India-France air forces exercise is named: (a) Shakti (b) Desert Knight (c) Garuda (d) Varuna
→ (c) — Shakti is the armies' exercise.
Q8. Cross-deck visits during a naval exercise are valuable principally because they: (a) Reduce fuel consumption (b) Allow each navy's personnel to observe how another professional service operates its ships (c) Are required by international maritime law (d) Replace the need for a sea phase
→ (b)
Q9. France's interest in Indian Ocean security is best described as: (a) Expeditionary, based on trade routes alone (b) Limited to European Union policy (c) A permanent national interest, since it holds sovereign territory and population in the region (d) Exercised only through NATO
→ (c)
Q10. Consider the following statements: 1. A long-running exercise series produces officers at every rank in both navies who have worked with the other. 2. Malabar is a bilateral exercise between India and France. Which is/are correct? (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither 1 nor 2
→ (a) — Malabar is multilateral, involving India, the United States, Japan and Australia.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
Military exercises are the single most dependable source of marks in the NDA general ability paper, and the India-France set is among the most asked because it spans all three services.
The pairing question dominates. Match the exercise to the country. The efficient way to prepare is by partner rather than by exercise: for France, Varuna, Garuda and Shakti — navy, air force, army. Learn the trio together and three questions collapse into one act of memory.
The name question occasionally asks what the name means. Varuna is the Vedic god of the waters, which is also a useful mnemonic that it is the naval one.
The date question asks when a series began or which edition is current. For Varuna, 1993 for the exercises and 2001 for the name is the pair worth holding, because a question can ask either and the two answers differ.
The geography question is the discriminating one here: which Indian Ocean territories belong to France. Réunion and Mayotte. Candidates who do not know this cannot explain why France is in Indian Ocean security conversations at all, and the question is asked in exactly that form.
For the SSB interview, the India-France relationship is an unusually good example to have ready. A candidate who explains that France was among the first major powers to re-engage after 1998, that it transfers technology rather than only selling platforms, and that it is an Indian Ocean resident power because Réunion is France — is describing a strategic relationship rather than listing purchases. That is the level the interview rewards.
Preparing for NDA? Learn exercises by partner country, not alphabetically — one country usually gives you three exercises across three services. Build the base with our NDA general ability notes, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Col D.N. Sharma — Defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk.