Article Posted on : - Feb 07, 2014

PORT BLAIR (PTI): Indonesia intends to improve military ties with India, especially for an enhanced joint patrol with the Indian Navy, a senior Indonesian naval official has said.

"We are going to have a navy to navy talk on improving military ties and on other fields such as education and training of personnel. We look forward for escalating both navies involvement in the IND-INDO CORPAT," Commander Amrin Rosihan told reporters on Thursday on board KRI Sutanto.

KRI Sutanto is one of the nine visiting foreign ships calling on Port Blair for MILAN 2014.

Indonesia is one of the 16 countries participating in the ninth biennial international naval exercise MILAN-2014 conducted by the Indian Navy.

IND-INDO CORPAT, the 15-day joint patrol exercise between the Indian and Indonesian navies every April for the last few years have been successful, he said.

The opening ceremony of this year's IND-INDO CORPAT would be in Port Blair in April, to be presided over by the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the closing ceremony would be held in Indonesia, he said.

"We are also looking to increase the number of ships being involved in the exercise. Right now, both the sides are involving two ships. We want that to go up," the Commanding Officer of KRI Sutanto said.

Indonesia is also set to conduct another multilateral exercise KOMODO in the end of March this year.

"Around 18 countries are expected to participate in the event. The exercise will commence in the last week of March and conclude in the first week of April," the officer said.