Article Posted on : - Feb 24, 2015

NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian Navy chief Admiral R K Dhowan has reached Bangladesh on a four-day visit to further consolidate the bilateral defence ties and to explore new avenues for naval cooperation towards achieving comprehensive maritime security in the Bay of Bengal.

During his stay at Bangladesh, the Chief of Naval Staff is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three Service Chiefs at Dhaka as well as call on the President and the Prime Minister.

Dhowan will also visit various training and operational facilities at Khulna and Chittagong.

The Indian and Bangladeshi Navies cooperate with each other in various areas of technical training, participation in Victory Day celebrations, Navy to Navy Staff Talks as well as through interactions at various multilateral fora such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium and the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.

The Bangladeshi Navy has been regularly participating in the MILAN series of exercises conducted by Indian Navy at Port Blair and warships from both Navies call at each other's ports.

These avenues for cooperation provide excellent opportunity for professional exchanges, developing interoperability and to build camaraderie, an official statement said on Monday.

The major issues that are likely to be discussed by the Chief of Naval Staff include exchange of white shipping information towards development of comprehensive maritime domain awareness, cooperation in maritime infrastructure development, training and exchange of subject matter experts.

In addition, Bangladesh Navy has been invited to attend the prestigious International Fleet Review being organised by the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam in February 2016.