The first leg of the Tarang Shakti 2024, largest multinational air exercise hosted by India was held at the Sulur Air Base in Tamil Nadu from August 6 to 14. This exercise brought together air forces from 10 countries. The second leg of this exercise is being held in Jodhpur in Rajasthan from August 29 to September 14.

Spain is one of the countries participating in Tarang Shakti. Spain’s Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force Air Chief General Francisco Braco Carbó, who attended this exercise, took a sortie in India’s indigenous fighter jet Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and expressed interest in this aircraft.

Tarang Shakti is itself a part of the wider Pacific Skies 2024 Exercise in which European nations like Spain, France and Germany are participating. Pacific Skies was conducted in five parts in five different places in the world.

The importance of these exercises was highlighted by Germany’s Chief of Air Force Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz by stating that these exercises are meant to enhance the presence of European countries like Germany, Spain and France in the part of the world that is of importance to all of them.

Even as the construct of the Indo-Pacific Region has gained traction in the past one decade, several regional and extra regional powers are positioning themselves to engage with this region.

With the United States, Japan and Australia deeply engaged in the region already, European countries like France, Germany, the United Kingdom (UK), the Netherlands and Italy are integrating the Indo-Pacific Region into their economic and strategic outlook. The EU is also becoming a major player in this region.  

For various powers to engage with the Indo-Pacific Region, India, a resident power, is a major partner to navigate through this geopolitical construct. In recent times, Spain is also increasingly looking towards the Indo-Pacific Region and India is becoming its preferred partner, much like other powers. These exercises have not only provided an opportunity to Spain to engage with the Indo-Pacific Region but also to build upon its relations with India which have been on an upswing since past few years.

Spain’s strategic engagements with the Indo-Pacific Region may seem recent. However, these engagements are concomitant to the policies formulated by Spain for engaging with this region.

Successive political dispensations in Spain in the last two decades have emphasized the importance of Asia and the wider Asia Pacific (as the region is described in Spain’s political discourse) for Spain.

Recognizing that the global economic epicentre is shifting towards Asia, Spain’s then President of the Government José María Aznar, in 2000, commissioned a study on increasing Spain’s presence in Asia. This study was published as Asia Pacific Framework Plan 2000 which could be considered as the first institutional step from Spain to explore ways to strengthen its ties with the countries in Asia and the Pacific region.

The current political dispensation led by Pedro Sánchez has also emphasized on stronger relations with the Indo-Pacific Region in general and India in particular. In the past few years, the Spanish government has published two documents – A Strategic Vision for Spain in Asia (2018-2022) and Foreign Action Strategy (2021-2024) – that highlight the importance of Asia and India as well as suggest steps to strengthen Spain’s presence in this region.

As mentioned previously, India is increasingly becoming a major partner for Spain to increase the latter’s interactions with the Indo-Pacific Region. In particular, defence cooperation has become a cornerstone of the growing India-Spain relations.

Spain is actively participating in joint defence production as well as supplying defence equipment and components to India. Currently, through collaboration between Airbus and Tata Advanced Systems Limited, the two countries are engaged in joint manufacture of C-295 military transport aircraft at a manufacturing facility in Vadodara, India.

Apart from Airbus, Indra, a major defence company from Spain, is cooperating with entities in India. Indra is developing air traffic control system for the Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mopa (Goa) airports. Besides, Indra is also supplying space surveillance radar to ISRO and Lanza 3D surveillance radar to the Indian Navy.

Spain’s increasing engagements in the Indo-Pacific Region benefit both India and Spain. For India the Indo-Pacific Region is a platform to strengthen ties with Spain a country with which it had minimal interactions. For Spain, greater interactions with the Indo-Pacific Region and India present an opportunity to diversify its foreign engagements that could further lead to economic and strategic gains.

Mr. Niranjan Marjani is a political analyst and researcher based in Vadodara, India.