Operation Vanilla at Six: How a Cyclone Redrew India-Madagascar Ties

Six years ago, in January 2020, Madagascar, sprawling across 587,000 sq km in the southwest Indian Ocean, found itself at the mercy of Cyclone Diane. It was hit by a brutal weather system that pounded the island for days, bringing nonstop rain, flash floods, and deadly landslides. Six years ago, in January 2020, Madagascar was battered by severe weather linked to Cyclone Diane, triggering days of intense rain, flash floods, and landslides. In official situation updates at the time, at least 31 people were reported dead, more than 16,000 displaced, and over 100,000 affected across multiple regions. As President Andry Rajoelina declared a national emergency and appealed urgently for international assistance, it was the Indian Navy that answered

first. In a striking demonstration of India’s growing naval diplomacy and its now-established reputation as the region’s foremost first responder, India swung into action with a rapid, large-scale humanitarian effort that would become known as Operation Vanilla.

What followed was not merely a relief deployment—it marked a defining moment in the evolution of India’s HADR outreach across the Indian Ocean, showcasing how far its maritime capabilities had come and setting the stage for a new phase in India–Madagascar relations.That call travelled nearly 4,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to New Delhi. Within hours, the Indian Navy diverted INS Airavat—a ship originally heading toward Seychelles and already on mission deployment in the southern Indian Ocean—straight to Antsiranana. The move marked the beginning of Operation Vanilla, India’s largest humanitarian response in the region at the time.When the ship arrived in early February, its commanding officer immediately convened with local authorities to understand the scale of devastation. Medical teams and disaster-relief personnel fanned out into flood-hit districts, setting up temporary clinics and supporting Malagasy rescue operations. On February 1, Indian officers formally handed over stores of tents, blankets, clothing, medicines, and food—a lifeline for communities left stranded by washed-out roads and collapsing infrastructure. For Madagascar, the fourth-largest island on the planet and home to some of the world’s most unique biodiversity, the response signalled that distance was no barrier to timely assistance.A month later, another Indian naval ship, INS Shardul, sailed into Port Antsiranana with 600 tonnes of rice, the largest relief load ever transported by an Indian warship. Ambassador Abhay Kumar handed over the shipment to Madagascar’s foreign minister, noting that the grain had been loaded, transported, and offloaded in record time to meet acute food shortages caused by the cyclone. To many in Madagascar, the twin deployments of Airavat and Shardul became more than emergency relief missions—they were the beginning of a new chapter in Indo-Malagasy relations.

That momentum quickly carried into defence diplomacy. In February 2020, Madagascar’s Minister of National Defence travelled to India to participate in DefExpo and the India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave, marking the first-ever high-level defence ministerial visit between the two nations. A year later, in March 2021, the two navies conducted their first joint patrol of Madagascar’s Exclusive Economic Zone, with INS Shardul sailing alongside Malagasy Naval Ship Trozona in a coordinated security operation. A passing exercise, or PASSEX, followed at Antsiranana, strengthening operational familiarity. Around the same time, an Indian Navy Mobile Training Team spent about two weeks in Madagascar training 50 members of the Malagasy special forces—a capacity-building initiative that continued with a second training mission in October 2022.Indian naval vessels began to make more frequent appearances in Malagasy ports. INS Tir and Coast Guard Ship Sarathi arrived in Antsiranana in March 2023 as part of a long-range training deployment. That June, INS Trishul visited Toamasina and joined yoga events marking the International Day of Yoga under the 'Ocean Ring of Yoga'’ theme. By December, INS Sumedha was in Antsiranana conducting a maritime partnership exercise with the Malagasy Navy, adding another layer to the expanding web of naval cooperation.Diplomacy at the highest levels also gathered pace. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Rajoelina in February 2024 on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in Dubai—their first meeting, but one that set the tone for a more ambitious bilateral agenda. In February 2025, Madagascar’s Minister of Armed Forces and senior military leaders travelled to Bengaluru for Aero India, where they held closed-door discussions with India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi. Two months later, Madagascar joined the inaugural Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME), a multilateral naval drill co-hosted by India and Tanzania. And in June 2025, India’s Minister of State for Defence, Sanjay Seth, represented New Delhi at Madagascar’s 65th Independence Day celebrations before meeting Lt. Gen. Sahivelo Lala Monja Delphin to discuss maritime security and future cooperation.Six years after Operation Vanilla, the relationship between India and Madagascar looks markedly different from what existed before the cyclone. The humanitarian urgency of 2020 opened the door to sustained Indian engagement, from food security assistance and health support to coordinated naval operations and high-level defence dialogues. For Madagascar, India emerged as a dependable first responder in moments of crisis. For India, the island—strategically perched at the crossroads of the Mozambique Channel and the wider southwest Indian Ocean—has become an important partner in advancing maritime security and stability under its SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) framework.What began as a relief effort has since evolved into a complex relationship based on trust, proximity of interest, and the recognition that the Indian Ocean is a body of water that increasingly requires solutions based on cooperation. The Operation Vanilla legacy is a reminder that humanitarian engagement, even when prompted by a distant storm, can be the basis of long-term diplomatic engagement.