A 60-member Indian Armed Forces contingent departed for Oskemen, Kazakhstan, on Monday for the ninth edition of the India-Kazakhstan joint military exercise KAZIND-2026. The exercise runs from September 28 to October 11, 2026.

The Indian contingent is mainly drawn from a battalion of the Garhwal Rifles, along with troops from other arms and services and Indian Air Force personnel. The Kazakh side fields a matching-strength contingent, drawn primarily from the Kazakhstan Land Forces.

The exercise’s mandate is joint counter-terrorism operations in a sub-conventional environment under a United Nations mandate. Training in semi-urban and mountainous terrain will cover joint planning and execution, air mobility, and integrated unmanned aerial systems and counter-UAS operations.

The drills include raids, search-and-destroy operations, cordon-and-search, helipad and landing-site security and Special Heliborne Operations. A joint command post and an intelligence and surveillance centre will be set up, and the exercise will culminate in a full validation exercise against a simulated terrorist threat.