INS TRISHUL ARRIVES AT TOULON, FRANCE FOR THE 24th EDITION OF BILATERAL MARITIME EXERCISE VARUNA

1. At a Glance

• Exercise VARUNA is the flagship bilateral naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the French Navy. Its 24th edition is hosted at Toulon, France. [1]
• INS Trishul arrived at Toulon on 22 Sep 2026 to take part. [1]
• The exercise combines harbour and sea phases and is described as a marker of the "strong and enduring maritime partnership" between India and France. [1]
• UPSC relevance: the India–France strategic partnership, Indian Navy exercise diplomacy, interoperability and the Indo-Pacific/Mediterranean reach of the Navy.

2. Why in the News

• PIB (Ministry of Defence) release dated 24 Sep 2026 reports INS Trishul's arrival at Toulon on 22 Sep 2026 for the 24th edition of VARUNA. [1]
• Planned engagements are cross-deck visits, operational interactions and sporting engagements, in harbour and at sea. [1]
• Stated aims: share experiences and best practices, enhance interoperability, and foster mutual understanding. [1]

3. Background & Evolution

• Bilateral India–France naval exercises began in 1993 and were christened 'VARUNA' in 2001. [2]
• Varuna is the Vedic deity of the seas. This is general knowledge, not from the sources.
• Milestones from PIB releases:
• 19th edition (Varuna 19.1): off the Goa coast, 1–10 May 2019. [3]
• 20th edition: Arabian Sea, 30 Mar–3 Apr 2022. [4]
• 21st edition: began on the Western Seaboard on 16 Jan 2023. [5]
• 22nd edition: Mediterranean Sea (per search summary; not verified against an individual release). [2]
• 23rd edition: 19–22 Mar 2025. [6]

• 24th edition: Toulon, France, Sep 2026. [1]

• Editions alternate between Indian and French waters. The 24th is hosted by France.

• Earlier editions were held off Goa, and one was held off the French coast in April 2017. [2]

4. Core Static Facts

Item	Fact
Exercise	VARUNA (India–France bilateral naval exercise) [1]
Started / named	1993 / 2001 [2]
Current edition	24th [1]
Venue	Toulon, France [1]
Indian ship	INS Trishul, arrived 22 Sep 2026 [1]
Parent ministry	Ministry of Defence (release issued by PIB Delhi) [1]
Activities	Cross-deck visits, operational interactions, sporting engagements [1]
Objectives	Best practices, interoperability, mutual understanding [1]
INS Trishul class	Talwar-class frigate (from the search summary; the source was not a whitelisted page and is not cited)
Earlier Trishul deployment	Port call at Mombasa, Kenya, 26–29 May 2023, on a 5-nation Africa deployment [7]

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Geopolitical / Strategic

• VARUNA is described as a hallmark of the India–France strategic relationship. [2]
• The release says the visit "reflects the expanding scope of maritime cooperation". [1]
• A Mediterranean or European venue extends the Indian Navy's presence beyond the Indian Ocean Region. [1]

Military / Operational

• Interoperability is achieved through operational interactions and sea-phase engagements. [1]
• Cross-deck visits build familiarity with each other's procedures and platforms. [1]

Diplomatic (Naval Diplomacy)

• Sporting engagements and harbour-phase interactions are people-to-people, confidence-building elements. [1]
• Similar port-call diplomacy by INS Trishul with Kenya's navy included deck visits and sport exchanges. [7]

Administrative / Institutional

• The exercise is a regular, numbered series held roughly annually. Editions are hosted alternately by the two navies. [2][6]

6. Recent Developments (last 12-18 months)

• 19–22 Mar 2025: 23rd edition of VARUNA. [6]
• 22 Sep 2026: INS Trishul arrives at Toulon for the 24th edition. [1]
• 24 Sep 2026: PIB release on the arrival, 174/26, Release ID 2314333. [1]

7. Prelims Hooks

• The 24th edition of VARUNA is hosted at Toulon, France. [1]
• INS Trishul reached Toulon on 22 Sep 2026. [1]
• VARUNA is a bilateral exercise between the Indian Navy and the French Navy. [1]
• India–France bilateral naval exercises began in 1993. [2]
• The exercise was named VARUNA in 2001. [2]
• The 20th edition was held in the Arabian Sea in 2022. [4]
• The 21st edition began on the Western Seaboard on 16 Jan 2023. [5]
• The 23rd edition was held on 19–22 Mar 2025. [6]
• The release comes from the Ministry of Defence via PIB. [1]
• VARUNA is not a multilateral exercise. Malabar is the multilateral one and is not covered by these sources.
• INS Trishul made a port call at Mombasa on 26–29 May 2023. [7]
• VARUNA involves cross-deck visits, operational interactions and sporting engagements. [1]

8. Why France Is the One European Navy India Drills With

• France is not a visitor to the Indian Ocean. It lives there.
• France holds territory in the Indian Ocean, so its navy has its own bases and its own waters to protect.
• Indian ships call there as routine: INS Talwar at La Réunion in October 2024, and training ships INS Tir and CGS Sarathi in September 2025 [8].

• A partner with a home port in the region can give India fuel, repairs and information in a crisis. A partner sailing in from Europe cannot.

• The political frame is already built, so the navies do not start from zero each year.

• India and France adopted the Horizon 2047 roadmap in July 2023, a 25-year plan for the relationship [8].
• In February 2026 the two sides raised ties to a Special Global Strategic Partnership and created an annual Foreign Ministers' Comprehensive Dialogue to review it [8].
• At the 6th Annual Defence Dialogue on 17 February 2026 in Bengaluru, both renewed a 10-year defence cooperation agreement and agreed to post officers in each other's land forces units [8].

• So VARUNA is the visible top of a standing structure, not a one-off friendly match.

• France gives India technology other partners hold back.

• France was India's first strategic partnership with a Western country, launched on 26 January 1998 [8].
• Defence, civil nuclear energy and space are its three core pillars — all three are areas where most suppliers put conditions on India [8].

9. Toulon Is Not a Detour — It Sits on India's Trade Route

• The Mediterranean is the far end of India's own sea lane.
• Indian cargo to Europe goes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and comes out in the Mediterranean. Toulon is on that far end.
• France signed the MoU on the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as an original signatory, at the G20 summit in Delhi on 9 September 2023 [8].

• IMEC is meant to move Indian goods to Europe through West Asia. If that corridor is to work, the Indian Navy needs working habits with navies at the European end — not only in the Arabian Sea.

• India is already building a Mediterranean political track, not just a naval one.

• A Mediterranean edition of the Raisina Dialogue was launched at Marseille in June 2025 and is now an annual event [8].
• India opened a Consulate General in Marseille during PM Modi's February 2025 visit [8].

• Read VARUNA's Toulon edition with these: the Navy's movement follows a diplomatic push that is already under way.

• Write this carefully in an answer. A European port call shows reach, which means the ability to sail and operate far away. It does not by itself show presence, which would mean staying there. India has no base in the Mediterranean.

10. The Partnership's Real Weight Is in Factories, Not Fleet Drills

• The exercise trains people. The industrial deals decide what India can build.
• On 28 April 2025 India and France signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement for 26 Rafale-Marine aircraft for the Indian Navy [8], worth roughly ₹63,000 crore [9].
• The deal is not only a purchase. It includes transfer of technology to fit Indian-made weapons on the aircraft, a Rafale fuselage production facility in India, and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) shops in India for the engine, sensors and weapons [8].

• That is the difference between buying a jet and being able to keep it flying without the seller.

• The same shift is visible on engines.

• In November 2025 PM Modi opened the Safran Aircraft Engine Services India (SAESI) facility near Hyderabad — India's first deep-level aircraft engine MRO centre set up by a global original equipment maker [8].
• It is designed to service up to 300 LEAP engines and to employ more than 1,000 technicians and engineers by 2035 [8].

• Safran also set up an MRO shop for the M88 engine that powers the Rafale, and signed a joint venture with Bharat Electronics Limited to make the Hammer air-to-surface weapon in India [8].

• Where the gap still is. All of this is repair, assembly and fitting work. Designing a combat aircraft engine in India is a different step, and none of these agreements deliver it. Say this plainly in an answer instead of calling the deals "self-reliance" without qualification.

11. Is VARUNA Only Symbolism? The Strongest Objection, Answered

• The objection, put at its strongest:
• The exercise runs a few days a year. The listed activities include cross-deck visits and sporting engagements [1].
• India and France have no mutual defence treaty. Neither is obliged to fight for the other.

• So, the critic says, this is a photograph, not a capability.

• What is right in the objection. An exercise creates no legal duty. If India faces a crisis, France decides freely whether to help. Do not write in an answer that VARUNA "guarantees" support. It does not.

• Why it still falls short.
• The contact is now continuous, not annual. In 2025–26 alone: the French Carrier Strike Group Charles de Gaulle visited India in January 2025 under Operation Clemenceau; the French Navy Chief attended the 9th IONS Conclave at Visakhapatnam on 20 February 2026; and a French Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft joined India's MILAN 2026 exercise at Visakhapatnam [8].
• Trust has visibly deepened in one measurable way: in France's AsterX space exercises India was only a military observer in 2023 and 2024, and was upgraded to a participant in March 2025 [8]. A country does not move an outsider into its own drills for show.
• Both sides agreed in February 2026 to place officers inside each other's land forces establishments [8]. That is daily working contact, not ceremony.
• The point to carry into an answer: interoperability is not a promise of help. It is the removal of friction — shared procedures, common signals, known people — so that if the political decision to act together is ever taken, the two navies can do it in days rather than months.

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: India–France bilateral trade has more than doubled in a decade, to €13.59 billion (USD 15.81 billion) in 2025-26; France is India's third-largest trading partner in the EU [8]
• Data: 26 Rafale-Marine aircraft contracted on 28 April 2025 [8], about ₹63,000 crore [9]
• Data: France is India's 11th largest foreign investor — cumulative €10.50 billion (USD 12.01 billion), April 2000 to December 2025, or 1.55% of total FDI inflows [8]
• Framework: Horizon 2047 roadmap (adopted July 2023); India–France Roadmap on the Indo-Pacific (2023); relationship raised to a Special Global Strategic Partnership in February 2026 [8]
• Comparison: France is a resident Indian Ocean power with its own territory and port facilities (La Réunion port calls by INS Talwar, October 2024; INS Tir and CGS Sarathi, September 2025), unlike other European navies that only visit [8]
• Scheme/Corridor: IMEC — India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, MoU signed at the G20 Delhi summit on 9 September 2023, with France an original signatory [8]
• Institution: 6th Annual Defence Dialogue, Bengaluru, 17 February 2026 — 10-year defence cooperation agreement renewed; reciprocal deployment of officers agreed [8]

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: India and its neighbourhood; bilateral, regional and global groupings; effect of other countries' policies on India.
• GS-III: Security challenges; linkages of defence cooperation with external security.
• Plausible question stems:
• Naval exercises are instruments of strategic signalling and interoperability. Discuss with reference to India–France exercise VARUNA.
• Examine how India–France maritime cooperation contributes to India's Indo-Pacific strategy.
• Evaluate the role of bilateral naval exercises in India's security diplomacy.

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• India–France strategic partnership: the political framework for VARUNA.
• Other Indian Navy bilateral exercises: for comparison of partners and scope.
• Malabar (multilateral): a counterpart in a different format.
• Indo-Pacific / IORA / SAGAR–MAHASAGAR doctrine: the wider maritime policy context.
• Talwar-class and other Indian Navy frigates: the platform background.
• Defence indigenisation and Rafale-M/Scorpène deals: the defence-industrial side of the India–France relationship. This is general knowledge, not from the sources.
• Naval diplomacy and port calls: the mechanism of harbour-phase engagement.

15. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Ministry: the release comes from the Ministry of Defence, not the MEA.
• Edition numbering: the 24th edition is in 2026. The 23rd was in Mar 2025. [1][6]
• Bilateral vs multilateral: VARUNA involves only India and France.
• Venue: the 24th edition is in France (Toulon), not off Goa.
• 1993 vs 2001: exercises began in 1993, and the name VARUNA dates from 2001. [2]