Article Posted on : - Aug 08, 2016

NEW DELHI (PTI): Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba will this week leave on a five-day official tour to Indonesia to consolidate and explore new initiatives under India's 'Look East' policy.

During the visit from August 9-13, Adm. Lanba is scheduled to hold discussions with the Indonesian Defence Minister, Chief of Defence Forces, Chief of Indonesian Navy, besides other senior dignitaries and Naval officers.

India and Indonesia have been co-founders of the Non-Aligned Movement besides mutually beneficial collaboration in multilateral forums such as, ARF, ADMM+, G20 and WTO among others.

Defence co-operation between India and Indonesia is robust and has seen ascendancy through regular ships, aircraft and military delegation visits, training exchanges.

Both countries had also signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement in 2001.

Indonesia has adjoining Maritime Search and Rescue regions and Exclusive Economic Zones and share similar maritime challenges such as long coastline, extensive EEZ, coastal security, large coastal shipping and fishing fleet, wherein both navies have opportunities to learn from each other's experiences.

In addition, common ground exists for cooperation on a number of issues for both the navies, a statement by the Navy said.