Air Chief Marshal AP Singh calls on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan

New Delhi, August 12, 2026: Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh met President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday in a formal call-on conducted under established military protocol between the head of the Indian Air Force and the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

The meeting was confirmed by the President’s Secretariat through an official post on the Rashtrapati Bhavan X handle, @rashtrapatibhvn. Photographs released from the interaction showed Air Chief Marshal AP Singh in conversation with the President at the presidential residence.

While no details of the discussion were made public, that is in line with the nature of such high-level engagements. Call-on meetings of this kind are a regular part of India’s higher defence framework, through which the service chiefs formally interact with the President in her constitutional capacity as Supreme Commander.

Under this arrangement, the President receives periodic briefings and formal visits from the military leadership. Such interactions provide an institutional channel for the armed forces to apprise the Head of State on matters such as operational readiness, capability development and broader issues of national security significance. They also reinforce the constitutional relationship between civilian authority and the military.

About Air Chief Marshal AP Singh

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh is the 28th Chief of the Air Staff. He took over the post on September 30, 2024, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari.

Born in New Delhi on October 27, 1964, he was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on December 21, 1984. He is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, and the National Defence College, New Delhi.

Air Chief Marshal Singh is both a Qualified Flying Instructor and an Experimental Test Pilot, with more than 5,000 hours of flying experience on a wide range of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he has held a series of operational, command and staff appointments across the service.

His assignments have included command of a MiG-27 squadron and a frontline air base, as well as leadership of the MiG-29 Upgrade Project Management Team in Moscow. He also served as Project Director (Flight Test) at the National Flight Test Centre, a role in which he was closely associated with the flight testing of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.

At higher levels of command and staff responsibility, he has served as Air Defence Commander at Headquarters South Western Air Command, Senior Air Staff Officer at Eastern Air Command, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Central Air Command, and later as Vice Chief of the Air Staff before assuming charge as the IAF chief.

He is a recipient of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal. During his tenure as Chief of the Air Staff, the Indian Air Force has continued to focus on operational preparedness, induction of new platforms, indigenous capability development under Atmanirbhar Bharat, and greater jointness with the other services.

Institutional Significance

Meetings between the President and the service chiefs are a recurring feature of India’s defence institutional structure. Similar engagements have taken place in the past, including a call-on by Air Chief Marshal AP Singh with President Murmu in September 2025. On other occasions, the Chief of Defence Staff and the three service chiefs have also made joint calls on the President, including in connection with major operational developments.

These meetings serve both a formal and functional purpose. They reflect continuity in civil-military relations, uphold the professional norms of the armed forces, and preserve direct communication between the military’s senior leadership and the highest constitutional office in the country.

Tuesday’s interaction, though not accompanied by any official readout, fits squarely within that long-standing practice. It also comes as a reminder of the Indian Air Force’s mandated role in safeguarding the country’s airspace and contributing to national security under the overall guidance of the Supreme Commander.