India Germany air talks in New Delhi brought the Indian Air Force and the German Air and Space Force together for the first ever round of Air Staff Talks between the two services, held in the capital from Tuesday to Thursday, with both sides agreeing to widen cooperation in training, operational exchanges and capability development.

What the India Germany air talks covered

The Indian Air Force described the inaugural round as a step in strengthening bilateral defence cooperation, and said it offered a platform to deepen engagement and explore fresh avenues of cooperation across training, operational exchanges and capability development.

Those three areas set the agenda. The air force did not detail specific projects or a follow-up schedule.


A first round of staff talks

Air Staff Talks are structured, recurring engagements at which two air forces set the terms of their working relationship, review where cooperation stands and agree what to take up next. Run by the air staffs themselves, they tend to produce working arrangements rather than headline announcements.

The IAF holds similar service to service talks with several partners. Its own navy to navy staff talks with Australia concluded in Sydney this month, and it wrapped up bilateral Exercise Udara Shakti with Malaysia at Subang the same week.

The German round adds a European air force to that list in this format for the first time.

Where the two air forces have met before

They are not strangers in the air. German Eurofighters deployed to India in August 2024 for Tarang Shakti, the first multinational air exercise hosted by the Indian Air Force, flying from Sulur in Tamil Nadu alongside the Rafale, the Tejas and other fighters. The then chief of the German force flew a sortie in the indigenous Tejas during that exercise and praised the aircraft.

German and Indian fighters had already shared the sky in Australia at the multinational Pitch Black exercise. Contact at the top ran the other way too. Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, then the Chief of the Air Staff, flew a Eurofighter at a German airbase in 2024 at his German counterpart's invitation.

The German Air and Space Force

Germany renamed its air arm, long known as the Luftwaffe, the German Air and Space Force to reflect a remit that now takes in the space domain alongside conventional airspace duties. Its combat fleet is built around the Eurofighter Typhoon, backed by the A400M transport fleet.

The wider India Germany defence relationship

The India Germany air talks sit within a defence relationship that has grown through service level exchanges, exercises and industry contact, coordinated on the Indian side by the Ministry of Defence.

The Indian Air Force has widened its bilateral calendar sharply over the past two years, folding in staff talks, joint exercises and reciprocal visits with air forces across Europe, the Indo Pacific and West Asia, and the German round fits that pattern squarely.

German Eurofighters last operated from Indian soil at Sulur during Tarang Shakti in August 2024.