RAF Fairford (Britain), Jul 20 (IANS): The German air force is keen on a joint military exercise with India and will discuss the possibility of this when the Indian Air Force (IAF) chief visits Berlin in September.
Luftwaffe chief General Aarne Kreuzinger-Janik said during an interaction on the sidelines of the Royal International Air Tattoo here that Germany was exploring the possibilities of regular joint exercises with the IAF for achieving interoperability.
"We are in talks with Indian Air Force on joint exercises," Kreuzinger-Janik said when IANS pointed out to him that there were no joint military exercises between the Indian and German air forces.
"The IAF chief is visiting Germany in September and I will discuss with him the possibility of holding regular air exercises," he said.
With the present IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik, retiring this month-end, his successor N.A.K. Browne will get an opportunity to work out the modalities of the air exercises during his German visit in September.
Germany is a partner country along with Britain, Italy and Spain in the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter combat jet project. Germany is the lead country in European consortium EADS' campaign for the India's $10.4 billion tender for 126 combat aircraft for IAF.
India was the partner country at the 2008 Berlin Air Show. Defence Minister A.K. Antony was a guest of his German counterpart when he led a major defence ministry and industry delegation to Berlin.
The two countries also signed a defence cooperation framework in 2006 under which mutual visits by officers, training exchanges, consultations and cooperation take place.
Among the partner countries in the Eurofighter Typhoon project, India has a regular air exercise with only Britain.
The exercise, called Indradhanush, has attracted much attention in the past with the IAF's Sukhoi SU-30 frontline fighter jets being pitted against Royal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons.
The IAF also has regular air exercises with the US, French, Russian and Singaporean air forces.