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Three years after the Indian Army earned global recognition for its relief work in earthquake-hit Türkiye under Operation Dost, its medical teams are once again at the forefront of India’s humanitarian diplomacy, this time in Venezuela.
The Army has established a fully operational field hospital in earthquake-ravaged Venezuela after India launched Operation Amistad, deploying a 41-member medical contingent from the Agra-based 60 Para Field Hospital along with the indigenously developed BHISHM Cube mobile hospital and humanitarian relief supplies.
The emergency medical facility, initially equipped with 20 beds and expandable to 50, has already begun treating survivors. Army officials said it has attended to outpatients and admitted patients since becoming operational.
Designed to function around the clock, the hospital is equipped to provide trauma care, emergency surgeries, intensive care, laboratory diagnostics and X-ray facilities. The medical team comprises surgeons, anaesthetists, orthopaedic and dental specialists, nursing officers and paramedics trained for disaster response.
Operation Amistad was launched on July 26 after two Indian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft flew nearly 14,000 kilometres carrying more than 35 tonnes of humanitarian assistance, including two BHISHM Cubes, medicines and emergency equipment.
The BHISHM Cube, developed under the Aarogya Maitri initiative, is a rapidly deployable modular hospital capable of delivering advanced emergency medical care in disaster zones. It includes portable operation theatres, intensive care facilities, oxygen generation systems and diagnostic equipment, enabling doctors to treat victims even where local healthcare infrastructure has collapsed.
The deployment reinforces the Indian Army Medical Corps’ growing role as a frontline instrument of India’s HADR diplomacy.
The Venezuela operation inevitably recalls Operation Dost, mounted after the devastating earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria in February 2023. On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s directions, India dispatched more than 250 personnel, including National Disaster Response Force teams and a 99-member Army medical contingent that established a 30-bed field hospital in Iskenderun. More than 135 tonnes of relief material were airlifted in one of India’s largest overseas disaster-relief missions.
However, the geopolitical environment has changed dramatically since then.
Despite India’s extensive humanitarian assistance during the Türkiye earthquake, Ankara emerged as one of Islamabad’s principal military backers during Operation Sindoor last year. Pakistan deployed Turkish-origin drones during the conflict, highlighting the expanding defence partnership between the two countries. Shortly after India launched Operation Sindoor, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed solidarity with Islamabad, a gesture widely seen in New Delhi as politically significant.
Yet India’s latest overseas relief mission demonstrates that its HADR policy remains insulated from geopolitical differences. By rushing military medical assets to Venezuela, New Delhi has reinforced a doctrine that humanitarian assistance is driven by need rather than strategic alignment.
For the Indian Army, Operation Amistad is more than a disaster-relief mission. It is another demonstration of its ability to rapidly project specialised medical capability across continents, strengthening India’s credentials as a dependable first responder and a net security provider with expanding global reach.
Ravi Shankar
Dr Ravi Shankar has over two decades of experience in communications, print journalism, electronic media, documentary film making and new media.
He makes regular appearances on national television news channels as a commentator and analyst on current and political affairs. Apart from being an acknowledged Journalist, he has been a passionate newsroom manager bringing a wide range of journalistic experience from past associations with India’s leading media conglomerates (Times of India group and India Today group) and had led global news-gathering operations at world’s biggest multimedia news agency- ANI-Reuters. He has covered Parliament extensively over the past several years. Widely traveled, he has covered several summits as part of media delegation accompanying the Indian President, Vice President, Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister and Finance Minister across Asia, Africa and Europe.
