INDIAN DEFENCE FORCES CONTINGENT DEPARTS FOR INDIA–SRI LANKA JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE ‘MITRA SHAKTI 2026’

1. At a Glance

• MITRA SHAKTI is an annual bilateral army exercise between India and Sri Lanka on counter-terrorism (CT). It is held in India and Sri Lanka in alternate years. [1]
• 12th edition (2026): a 170-member Indian Defence Forces contingent left for the Army Training School, Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka on 13 Nov 2026. [1]
• Core aim: interoperability for CT operations in a semi-urban environment under a United Nations mandate. [1]
• Why it matters for UPSC: it is the main army-to-army part of India–Sri Lanka defence diplomacy and fits under the Neighbourhood First / Indian Ocean Region (IOR) theme. Exercise names, editions, venues and regiments are tested often in Prelims. [1][4]

2. Why in the News

• 13 Nov 2026: a 170-member Indian contingent departed for Sri Lanka for MITRA SHAKTI 2026. The exercise runs 13–26 November 2026, which is 14 days. [1]
• Preceding edition: the 11th edition, MITRA SHAKTI-2025 (XI), was held at the Foreign Training Node, Belagavi, Karnataka from 10–23 November 2025. [2]

3. Background & Evolution

• Origin: the PIB describes the series as one of the major bilateral defence cooperation initiatives between India and Sri Lanka since 2013. [4]
• Milestones (chronological):
• 2016: held at Ambepussa, Sri Lanka. [6]
• 2017: based on counter-terrorist operations (PIB release). [7]
• 2019: 7th edition (Mitra Shakti-VII); the PIB covered its closing ceremony. [8]
• 2021: 8th edition at Ampara, Sri Lanka. It focused on joint CT operations in a semi-urban/rural environment under a UN mandate. [4][5]
• August 2024: 10th edition at Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka. Drills included responding to terrorist action, securing a helipad or landing site, and cordon and search. [3]
• 10–23 Nov 2025: 11th edition at Belagavi, India. It rehearsed sub-conventional operations under UN Chapter VII. Raids, search-and-destroy and heliborne operations were practised, and drones and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) were used. [2]

• 13–26 Nov 2026: 12th edition at Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka. [1]

• Rotation is visible in the venues: Sri Lanka in 2024, India in 2025, Sri Lanka in 2026. [1][2][3]

4. Core Static Facts

Key terms [1]

• Interoperability: the ability of two forces to plan, communicate and operate together. It is the overarching aim of the exercise.
• Combined arms operations: different arms and services used together, including against fortified positions.
• Validation exercise: the final joint exercise, in which both sides apply the practised TTPs (tactics, techniques and procedures).
• 2026 drills: road blocks, urban patrolling, vehicle convoy protection, area ambush, crowd dispersal, and combined arms operations against fortified positions.

5. Multi-Dimensional Analysis

Geopolitical / Strategic

• Builds army-to-army trust with a key IOR neighbour through defence diplomacy. The stated aims include mutual understanding and regional peace, stability and security. [1]
• The alternating venues give both sides equal ownership. The exercise is reciprocal, not donor-recipient. [1][2]
• Analysis: it helps keep India the preferred security partner in Sri Lanka, at a time when extra-regional powers are also reaching out to Colombo.

Security / Internal Security

• Both armies have long experience of CT and counter-insurgency, so the training is an exchange of operational experience and best practices. [1]
• The urban and semi-urban drills (road blocks, convoy protection, crowd dispersal) match today's terror threat profiles. [1]

Multilateral / UN Peacekeeping

• The UN-mandate setting (Chapter VII in 2025) prepares troops for multinational, UN-authorised missions. [1][2]
• Analysis: India and Sri Lanka both contribute troops to UN peacekeeping, so working together in exercises helps in mixed-contingent deployments.

Scientific / Technological

• The 2025 edition added drones and Counter-UAS alongside helicopters, reflecting lessons from recent conflicts. [2]
• In 2026, IAF personnel are part of the contingent, which points to joint (tri-service) integration. [1]

Administrative / Military-Institutional

• In 2026 the contingent is drawn from several arms and services and the IAF, not just one battalion. This is a step towards jointness. [1]
• The validation exercise checks training outcomes against the TTPs practised. [1]

6. Recent Developments (last 12–18 months)

• 10 Nov 2025: MITRA SHAKTI-XI began at Belagavi, with 170 Indian (RAJPUT Regiment) and 135 Sri Lankan (GAJABA Regiment) personnel. [2]
• 10–23 Nov 2025: the 11th edition used drones, C-UAS and helicopters, and practised raid, search-and-destroy and heliborne operations. [2]
• 13 Nov 2026: a 170-member contingent, led by a Rajputana Rifles battalion with IAF personnel, departed for Maduru Oya for the 12th edition. [1]
• 13–26 Nov 2026: the 12th edition runs, with its focus on semi-urban CT under a UN mandate. [1]

7. Prelims Hooks

• MITRA SHAKTI is an India–Sri Lanka bilateral army exercise, not a multilateral one. [1]
• It is held annually, in India and Sri Lanka alternately. [1]
• 12th edition took place in 2026. [1]
• 2026 venue: Army Training School, Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka. [1]
• 2026 dates: 13–26 November 2026, i.e. 14 days. [1]
• 2026 Indian contingent: 170 members, mainly from Rajputana Rifles, with IAF personnel. [1]
• 2026 theme: counter-terrorism in a semi-urban environment under a UN mandate. [1]
• 11th edition (2025) venue: Foreign Training Node, Belagavi, Karnataka. [2]
• 2025 Sri Lankan contingent: 135 personnel, from the GAJABA Regiment. [2]
• 2025 Indian contingent: RAJPUT Regiment. It is a different regiment from the Rajputana Rifles of 2026. [1][2]
• The 2025 edition rehearsed operations under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. [2]
• The 2025 edition used drones and Counter-UAS. [2]
• 10th edition (2024) venue: Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka. [3]
• 8th edition (2021) venue: Ampara, Sri Lanka. [4]
• The PIB calls the series a major India–Sri Lanka defence cooperation initiative since 2013. [4]

8. What the 2025 Defence MoU Changes for This Exercise

• For the first time, the exercise sits under a signed agreement
• On 5 April 2025, during the Prime Minister's visit to Sri Lanka, the two countries signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding, a formal but non-binding written agreement) on Defence Cooperation [10].
• The MEA called it an umbrella framework, meaning one document that holds all existing defence activities together and makes them "more structured" [9].

• Its stated activities include more joint exercises, capacity building, HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) exchanges, more naval port calls, and exploring defence-industry cooperation [9].

• Why this matters for MITRA SHAKTI

• Earlier, the exercise depended on year-to-year political will. That is one reason it has 12 editions across the years since 2013, not one every year [1][4].

• An exercise listed under a signed MoU is harder to quietly drop when relations cool.

• New bodies now sit above the exercise

• A Ministerial Committee on Defence Cooperation was announced in April 2025 under the Strategic Partnership Council [11].
• The first-ever Army Staff Talks (regular meetings between the two armies' planning staff) were held in New Delhi the same month [11].
• So the 2026 edition is the first Sri Lanka-hosted edition planned with this machinery in place. Earlier editions were planned exercise by exercise.

9. The Human Rights Question Over Sri Lanka's Army

• The strongest objection: India is training with an army still facing war-crimes questions
• In 2010, the UN Secretary-General named a Panel of Experts to advise on accountability for possible rights violations in the final phase of Sri Lanka's civil war [18].
• In 2021, the UN Human Rights Council strengthened the UN rights office's probe into the war [19].

• In 2019, the UN human rights chief called the appointment of an army commander accused of wartime abuses "deeply troubling". She said it could affect Sri Lanka's ability to keep contributing to UN peacekeeping [13].

• This hits the exercise's own stated purpose

• MITRA SHAKTI is built around a UN-mandate scenario, meaning practice for UN peacekeeping-type missions [1][2].
• But Sri Lankan troops can join UN missions only after vetting (checking each soldier's and unit's human rights record). The UN said in 2019 that such screening had been agreed in December 2018 [14].
• At the Human Rights Council in 2026, one speaker said the joint vetting mechanism between Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission and the UN rights office collapsed in 2024. The speaker said the UN now uses a temporary screening arrangement instead [15]. This is one party's claim, not a UN finding.

• So both armies can practise UN-style operations together, but whether Sri Lankan units actually deploy is decided by a vetting system that is under strain.

• The honest answer

• The objection is right on one point. Training with a force does not clean its record, and India should not present the exercise as proof of Sri Lankan army reform.
• But stopping the exercise would not fix accountability either. It would only remove India's army-to-army access, in a country where other powers are also competing for influence [12].

• Regular contact with professional armies is one way rules of conduct spread. This works only if those rules are actually taught.

• Indian Army and MoD: put the UN's conduct rules into the drills themselves

• The UN's Human Rights Due Diligence Policy (HRDDP: the UN rule that it will not support forces at real risk of serious rights violations) is the standard Sri Lanka's deployments are judged by [15].
• Crowd dispersal and cordon-and-search, both part of the drills, are exactly where civilian-harm complaints come from [1][3].
• Scoring rules of engagement and IHL (International Humanitarian Law, the laws of war that protect civilians) compliance in the validation exercise would make the UN-mandate theme real, not just a label.

10. What Army Drills Cannot Fix Between the Two Countries

• The sharpest daily dispute is at sea, not on land
• The most persistent bilateral irritant is the arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities in the Palk Bay area.
• The MEA told Parliament it had received communications from the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and MPs on these arrests, and had raised it with Sri Lanka's new leadership in October 2024 [17].
• 591 Indian fishermen were released and repatriated between 2024 and March 2025 [16].

• An army exercise does not touch this issue. The arrests involve the Sri Lankan Navy and Indian state politics, so army-to-army goodwill does not carry over.

• The China assurance is a promise, not a treaty

• In a joint statement, Sri Lanka's President repeated that Sri Lanka will not allow its territory to be used against India's security [12].
• But this is a political statement. The same document only agreed to "explore the possibility" of a binding framework Agreement on Defence Cooperation [12].

• So India's main security hedge in Sri Lanka still rests on words, and an exercise is not a substitute for a binding agreement.

• What the exercise covers is narrower than what the MoU promises

• The MoU lists HADR exchanges as a shared activity [9].
• MITRA SHAKTI stays a counter-terrorism exercise, with drills like road blocks and fortified-position attacks [1].
• So the most visible people-facing kind of cooperation, disaster relief, has no regular army-level exercise under this series.

11. Who Should Do What Next

• MEA and MoD: turn the MoU into the binding agreement it points to
• The joint statement already names a framework Agreement on Defence Cooperation, and the supply of defence platforms and assets to Sri Lanka, as next steps to explore [12].

• Concluding that agreement would give the exercise, and the territory assurance, a legal base and not just a political one.

• Ministerial Committee on Defence Cooperation: fix a multi-year exercise calendar

• The committee now exists [11]. Setting a fixed rotation and fixed themes for several years ahead would stop editions being skipped, as happened in the past [4].

• Add an HADR module, as the MoU itself suggests

• The MoU already lists HADR exchanges [9]. A disaster-relief phase in MITRA SHAKTI would use the same skills already practised, such as heliborne movement and convoy protection [1][2].

• It would also show ordinary Sri Lankans what the partnership does for them, not just for their army.

• Keep the Army Staff Talks as the place to raise hard issues

• The first talks were held in April 2025 [11]. Staff talks, not the exercise itself, are the right forum to discuss rules of engagement and UN vetting standards. These decide whether the UN-mandate training is ever used in a real mission [14][15].

12. Anchors for Answers

• Data: 591 Indian fishermen released and repatriated from Sri Lanka between 2024 and March 2025, which shows the scale of the maritime dispute that army ties do not reach [16]
• Data: 170 Indian and 135 Sri Lankan personnel took part in the 2025 edition, a balanced and reciprocal exercise [2]
• Report/Committee: MoU on Defence Cooperation, April 2025, India and Sri Lanka's first umbrella defence framework [9][10]; Ministerial Committee on Defence Cooperation, announced April 2025 [11]; UN Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on accountability in Sri Lanka, 2010 [18]
• Law/Case: UN Charter Chapter VII, the legal frame the 2025 edition rehearsed [2]; UN Human Rights Council action on Sri Lanka, 2021, which strengthened the UN rights office's probe [19]; UN Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, which governs whether Sri Lankan units can deploy [15]
• Scheme: Neighbourhood First, the policy frame for defence outreach to Sri Lanka, backed by Sri Lanka's assurance not to let its territory be used against India's security [1][12]

13. Mains Relevance

• GS-II: India and its neighbourhood relations; bilateral groupings and agreements affecting India's interests.
• GS-III: security challenges and their management; linkages between terrorism and the security environment.
• Possible question stems: 1. Defence diplomacy has become a key instrument of India's Neighbourhood First policy. Examine with reference to India–Sri Lanka military cooperation. (GS-II, 15 marks) 2. Joint military exercises do more than build operational interoperability. Discuss their strategic significance in the Indian Ocean Region. (GS-II/III, 10 marks) 3. Evaluate the role of bilateral counter-terrorism exercises in preparing Indian forces for UN-mandated multinational operations. (GS-III, 10 marks)

14. Related Topics to Study Next

• SLINEX: the India–Sri Lanka naval exercise; the maritime counterpart to MITRA SHAKTI.
• Neighbourhood First and SAGAR/MAHASAGAR: the policy frame behind defence outreach to Sri Lanka.
• UN Peacekeeping and Chapter VI vs Chapter VII of the UN Charter: the legal basis of the "UN mandate" scenario.
• Colombo Security Conclave: the minilateral maritime-security grouping that includes India and Sri Lanka.
• India's other bilateral army exercises (e.g. Surya Kiran with Nepal, Sampriti with Bangladesh, Yudh Abhyas with the US): a common area for matching-pair questions.
• Chinese presence in Sri Lanka (Hambantota, research vessels): the strategic backdrop to India–Sri Lanka defence ties.
• Counter-UAS and drone warfare: the technology trend that has entered exercise curricula. [2]
• Theatre commands and jointness: the IAF's inclusion in an army exercise contingent. [1]

15. NCERT Concepts to Revise

• Defence diplomacy (Polity): The exercise is army-to-army defence diplomacy, building trust with Sri Lanka through joint training.
• Interoperability (Polity): The exercise's core aim is for the two armies to plan, communicate and operate together.
• Jointness (Polity): IAF personnel joining an army contingent shows Army, Navy and Air Force working as one force.
• Neighbourhood First Policy (Polity): The policy frame for India's defence outreach to Sri Lanka and other immediate neighbours.
• Memorandum of Understanding (Polity): The April 2025 defence MoU is a non-binding umbrella; the note contrasts it with a binding agreement.
• International humanitarian law (Polity): The note suggests scoring compliance with the laws of war in the validation exercise.
• War crimes (Polity): Questions over Sri Lankan army conduct in the civil war are the main objection to the exercise.
• UN Human Rights Council (Polity): It strengthened the UN probe into Sri Lanka's civil war in 2021 and hears the vetting debate.
• Accountability (Polity): Accountability for wartime abuses and UN vetting decide whether Sri Lankan units can join UN missions.
• Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (Geography): The MoU lists HADR cooperation, but MITRA SHAKTI does not yet include it.
• Naval Staff Talks (Geography): Army Staff Talks, the army version of these, are the forum the note proposes for hard issues.
• Indian Ocean (Geography): The exercise sits within India's Indian Ocean Region strategy and competition for influence there.
• Strategic partnership (Polity): The 2025 defence MoU and Strategic Partnership Council raise India–Sri Lanka ties into a structured defence partnership.

16. Common Errors / Trap Areas

• Regiment confusion: in 2025 the Indian side was the RAJPUT Regiment [2]. In 2026 it is Rajputana Rifles [1]. These are two different regiments.
• Venue swap: 2025 was in Belagavi (India) [2]. 2026 is in Maduru Oya (Sri Lanka) [1]. Maduru Oya also hosted 2024 [3], so do not mix up the 2024 and 2026 editions.
• Edition numbering: 2025 was the 11th edition and 2026 is the 12th. The series dates from 2013, but editions were not held every year, so you cannot work out the edition number from the year. [1][2][4]
• Service type: it is an army exercise. IAF personnel are included in 2026, but it is not a tri-service or naval exercise (that would be SLINEX). [1]
• Bilateral vs multilateral: a UN-mandate scenario does not make the exercise multilateral. Only India and Sri Lanka take part. [1]