Indonesia for enhancing ties with Indian Navy

The Indonesian Navy, which has been conducting regular joint exercises with its Indian counterpart, is aiming to further enhance mutual ties especially in the sphere of joint patrolling, a senior Indonesian naval officer said here Thursday.

“Our ties with the Indian Navy have been very cordial and we are aiming to take it further up. 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,” Commander Amrin Rosihan told reporters onboard KRI Sutanto.

The KRI Sutanto is one of the nine foreign ships that are participating in the ongoing five-day biennial naval joint exercise “Milan 2014” at the Andaman and Nicobar Command here.

Indonesia is one of the 16 participating countries in the Milan which began Wednesday.

Rosihan also talked about plans to increase the involvement of both the navies in the Ind-Indo Corpat — the joint patrol undertaken by the two navies twice a year.

The exercise is held in international waters along the International Maritime Boundary Line, for prevention of illegal maritime activities, search and rescue operations and enhance inter-operability by conducting passage exercises.

It also also acts as a medium for social interaction between the two countries, with social events being organised by both.

“Currently, two ships from each of the navies participate in the Corpat. We are mulling an increase not only in their numbers but also in the number of days the exercise continues,” he said.

This year, the opening ceremony of the joint exercise would be held in Port Blair in April and presided over by the commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and the closing ceremony in Indonesia.

Indonesia is also set to conduct another multilateral naval exercise “Komodo” later 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.

  Indian Navy, Indonesia for enhancing ties