Special heliborne operations for Cyclone 2023, the first-ever combined exercise between the Indian and Egyptian armies, is ongoing near Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.

As of January 14, 2023, a cyclone was raging between the two nations, named “2023. The training, which will last for 14 days, is taking place in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

“Exercise #Cyclone 2023 #SpecialForces troops of #IndianArmy and #EgyptArmy exercised Special Heliborne Operations during the ongoing joint exercise at #Jaisalmer.” tweeted the Additional Directorate General of Public Information.

Indian-Egyptian Special Forces conduct heliborne operations during 'Exercise Cyclone 2023'. See Photos.

The exercise aims to strengthen communication and cooperation between the two armies and improve their special forces’ abilities in areas like sniping, combat free fall, reconnaissance, surveillance, and target design.

Indian-Egyptian Special Forces conduct heliborne operations during 'Exercise Cyclone 2023'. See Photos.

The two armies will also perform joint Special Forces operations planning and drills. The operations will be performed in a mechanized warfare setting as well as surgical strikes on terrorist camps/hideouts, including sniping of High-Value Targets.

Indian-Egyptian Special Forces conduct heliborne operations during 'Exercise Cyclone 2023'. See Photos.

From the Non-Aligned Movement to being home to one of the oldest civilizations, India and Egypt have a lot in common between them. The exercise coincides with this year’s Republic Day celebration, in which Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi joined as the chief guest. He enjoyed Republic Day on January 26.

Indian-Egyptian Special Forces conduct heliborne operations during 'Exercise Cyclone 2023'. See Photos.

The President of the Arab Republic of Egypt was the honored guest at India’s Republic Day Parade for the first time. In addition, the visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to India may result in the signing of several military agreements and accords.

Egypt’s Minister of Communications and IT, Amr Talaat, recently traveled to India. Egypt is eager to strengthen its ties with India in the sphere of Information and Technology, and his tour reflects that. His visit will focus on digital transformation, the electronics sector, young digital capability building, R&D, and cyber security.

Covid 19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have already strengthened military connections between the two countries, and the two countries hope to build on this. When circumstances were bad, both India and Egypt rallied around each other.

Egypt sent 300,000 doses of Remdesivir to India in May 2021, right as the country was experiencing its worst Covid wave of the year. In 2022, India helped Egypt cope with supply difficulties caused by the ongoing war by sending the country wheat.

With Egypt being the world’s largest wheat importer, the Russia-Ukraine crisis posed a threat to the Arab nation of food supply shortage. Eighty percent of the wheat supplied to Egypt is imported from Russia and Ukraine.

After that, the Egyptian Cabinet stated that India would be added to the list of recognized countries to supply wheat to Egypt in 2022, boosting efforts to strengthen ties between the two countries.