Visakhapatnam: Trilateral exercise begins in Port Blair

Visakhapatnam: A maiden trilateral exercise, involving Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), Royal Thailand Navy (RTN) and Indian Navy (IN) has commenced at Port Blair on Monday.

The five-day-long exercise aims at bolstering the maritime inter-relationships amongst Singapore, Thailand and India and contributes significantly to enhance the overall maritime security in the region. It also aims at strengthening the mutual confidence among three navies in terms of interoperability and development of a common understanding of procedures.

Under the ambit of this exercise, RSN Tenacious, a formidable-class guided missile stealth frigate and His Majesty's Thailand Ship (HTMS) Kraburi, a Guided Missile Frigate would be exercising with Indian Naval Ships Ranvir, a Guided Missile Destroyer, Kora, a missile corvette and Sukanya, an Offshore Patrol Vessel along with P8I Long Range Maritime Reconnaissance aircraft. During the harbour phase scheduled at Port Blair, professional exchanges, sports fixtures, and cross deck familiarisation visits would be organised. The sea phase scheduled from September 18-20, a host of surface and air operations involving Gunnery, Force Protection Measures and Communication drills would be conducted providing experience gaining and learning from each other's best practices.

The maiden IN-RSN-RTN Trilateral exercise would provide an opportunity to participating navies to come together in a spirit of collaboration to nurture stronger ties.