Article Posted on : - Feb 10, 2014

An Indian Navy photo.

ON BOARD INS SARYU/NEW DELHI (PTI): The biennial international naval exercise, MILAN 2014, involving 17 nations and 15 ships concluded off the Port Blair coast on Sunday, with Commander-in-Chief of Andaman and Nicobar Command Air Marshal P K Roy taking the traditional salute from all nine foreign ships, which participated in the six-day event.

Six Indian ships - INS Saryu, INS Kesari, INS Investigator, INS Battimalv, INS Baratang and INS Bangaram - participated in the Passing Exercise to send off the foreign navy ships.

A total of 17 navies in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) took part in the event conducted by the Indian Navy. They had come together for the maritime exercise, making it the biggest edition since its inception in 1995.

The event started on February 4 and the past few days saw the maritime forces of these nations coming closer professionally and building confidence in interoperability.

It was the first time that countries from the western IOR participated, including two African nations -- Kenya and Tanzania -- besides island nations of Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles.

It was also the first time that the Philippines and Cambodia participated in the drill, a statement from the Navy said.

The engagement included an international seminar on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) with participating nations like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines sharing lessons from their recent first-hand experiences in handling disasters like cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis.

In his keynote address, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi emphasised the need for developing capacity and procedures based on common principles and considerations.

He said rapid deployment, co-ordination, logistics and medical aid are cardinal considerations for founding common procedures for HADR operations.

While the other navies left after the traditional Passing Exercise, ships of the Myanmar Navy stayed back at Port Blair to continue joint patrol exercise with the Indian Navy till February 15.

Contingents from the visiting navies had also participated in the City Parade on Saturday.

In a notable incident, three Jaguars of the Indian Air Force also flew past for the first time in the City Parade. The Jaguars were from the Andaman and Nicobar Integrated Command and have their base at Car Nicobar.

The participants in the drill were -- Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand.