India to be guest of honour at Iniochos exercise in Greece

New Delhi: India will participate as a guest of honour in the Greece-led Iniochos exercise which will be held from  April 24  to May 5. The exercise involves NATO countries like USA, France and Italy and others like Jordan and Saudi Arabia. 

The Exercise paves the way for India Ito expand its connectivity with the Mediterranean and Southern Europe through Greece. It will give Indian Air Force an opportunity to test the Sukhoi-30 against the F-16.

The Exercise will also be a learning experience for friendly Western countries like France to test their Rafales against the Sukhoi and the Italians to pit their Tornadoes. The Greeks have over a hundred of the F-16Cs, the more improved version than the slightly older versions the PAF mostly has.

Though the Su -30 MKs have gone outside India to participate twice in  Red Flag in the USA, the world's largest air exercise, they have only co-trained outside the country with the French and the British. 

India has previously participated in multinational exercises in West Asia and Northern Africa  like "Blue Flag" exercises in Israel, the "Desert Flag 6" in the United Arab Emirates and "HopEx" in Egypt. 

The Air Force exercise of Greece earlier was held in April 20, 2021 at the Andravida airbase, about 300 kms. from Athens. Air forces of six countries – France, UAE, Spain, Israel, United States and Canada – participated in it. From the non-participating countries, either as direct or observers, an invitation for the event was only extended to the Indian Mission. 

Indo-Greek ties have been improving in recent years. The Greeks have not sold Pakistan the batteries it needs for it's submarines. Greece is also wary of Pakistan as it is close to Turkey, a major rival. And the Turks have given Pakistan Navy submarines a midlife upgrade and are selling corvettes and other weapons.

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