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The Indian Army contingent departed on 17 August 2026 for Thailand for MAITREE-XV, the 15th edition of the India-Thailand joint military exercise.
The exercise runs from 18 to 31 August 2026 at Vibhavadi Rangsit Camp, Surat Thani, Thailand; the previous edition was held at the Foreign Training Node, Umroi, Meghalaya, in September 2025.
Each side fields 85 personnel - India represented primarily by troops of 9 Gorkha Rifles and Thailand by the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division - for company-level training in jungle and semi-urban terrain.
The drill focuses on joint counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter; Exercise MAITREE was instituted in 2006.
| Exercise | Service | Nature and key facts |
|---|---|---|
| MAITREE | Army | Bilateral joint military exercise instituted in 2006; alternates between India and Thailand; 15th edition in August 2026 at Surat Thani, Thailand |
| SIAM BHARAT | Air Force | Joint exercise of the Indian Air Force with the Royal Thai Air Force |
| Indo-Thai CORPAT | Navy | Coordinated Patrol conducted along the India-Thailand International Maritime Boundary Line twice a year since 2005, aimed at curbing IUU fishing, drug trafficking, piracy, armed robbery and maritime terrorism |
| Ex AYUTTHAYA | Navy | The maiden India-Thailand bilateral maritime exercise, conducted alongside the 36th CORPAT in December 2023; the name translates as 'the invincible / undefeatable one' |
Chapter VII, comprising Articles 39 to 51, is headed 'Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression'. It is the enforcement chapter: under Article 39 the Security Council determines that a threat to the peace exists; Article 41 lets it order measures short of force, such as economic sanctions or severance of diplomatic relations; and Article 42 permits action by air, sea or land forces where Article 41 measures are or would be inadequate. Contrast Chapter VI, which covers pacific settlement of disputes through negotiation, mediation and arbitration - the traditional home of consent-based peacekeeping. When a joint exercise says it trains for operations 'under Chapter VII', it means peace-enforcement scenarios where force may be used, not classical peacekeeping.
Simple Analogy: Chapter VI is mediation between two quarrelling neighbours; Chapter VII is the point at which the authorities are empowered to step in and impose a settlement.
The grouping that links India and Thailand institutionally. Created by the Bangkok Declaration of 6 June 1997 as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand); Myanmar joined in December 1997 and Nepal and Bhutan in 2004, taking membership to seven - five from South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka) and two from South-East Asia (Myanmar, Thailand). Its purpose is economic and technical cooperation among Bay of Bengal littoral and adjacent states.
The land component of the Royal Thai Armed Forces and India's counterpart in Exercise MAITREE; for the 2026 edition it is represented by the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division
The Indian Army's dedicated node under Eastern Command for conducting joint exercises with friendly foreign armies, chosen for terrain and weather suited to jungle warfare training. It hosted MAITREE-XIV in September 2025 and has hosted exercises with several partner countries
Surat Thani is the largest of Thailand's southern provinces, fronting the Gulf of Thailand on the eastern side of the Kra Isthmus. It is the province from which the islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao are administered, along with the Mu Ko Ang Thong marine national park - Koh Samui being Thailand's second-largest island after Phuket. Placing it matters because Thailand's territory straddles two seas: the Gulf of Thailand in the east and the Andaman Sea in the west, which is where the India-Thailand maritime boundary runs and where the Indo-Thai CORPAT is conducted near India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Umroi, the venue of the previous edition, lies in Meghalaya in India's North East - the region the Act East Policy treats as the land bridge to South-East Asia.
India's engagement with Thailand runs through the Act East Policy, announced in November 2014 at the 12th ASEAN-India Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. It succeeded the Look East Policy launched in 1991 under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, shifting the emphasis from trade alone to a broader agenda that includes defence and security cooperation - of which exercises like MAITREE are the visible part.
Thailand is both a BIMSTEC member and an ASEAN member, and India shares a maritime boundary with it in the Andaman Sea. That is why the relationship has an exercise in each service - Army (MAITREE), Air Force (SIAM BHARAT) and Navy (CORPAT and Ex AYUTTHAYA).
The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway is the flagship land-connectivity project of the Act East Policy, running from Moreh in Manipur through Myanmar to Mae Sot in Thailand - the physical counterpart to the security cooperation.
India's Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairengte, Mizoram, and the Umroi training node have made counter-insurgency training in jungle terrain a recurring theme of India's exercises with South-East Asian armies.
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > Bilateral Groupings and Agreements; GS Paper 3 > Security
General Awareness > Defence Exercises and Current Affairs
CDS/AFCAT General Awareness > Joint Exercises
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Joint military exercises are asked almost every year in SSC, Railway and defence examinations, and periodically in UPSC Prelims as matched pairs.
The India-Thailand bilateral joint military exercise of the two armies, instituted in 2006; the 15th edition was held in August 2026 at Surat Thani, Thailand.
Coordinated Patrol - a patrol conducted by two navies along a shared International Maritime Boundary Line; the Indo-Thai CORPAT has been held twice a year since 2005.
Articles 39-51, dealing with action in respect of threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression - the enforcement chapter, as distinct from Chapter VI on pacific settlement.
India's policy for engagement with South-East Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific, announced in November 2014 at the 12th ASEAN-India Summit in Nay Pyi Taw, succeeding the 1991 Look East Policy.