Visakhapatnam: Officials of the Indian Navy on Friday said that the third Australia - India Maritime Exercise (AUSINDEX) is proof of the upswing in Indian-Australian maritime relationship.
Commander of the Australian Fleet, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead and his Indian counterpart Rear Admiral Suraj Berry addressed a joint press meet here at the Naval Dockyard here.
He said, “As a follow up to the Framework of Security Cooperation announced by the Prime Ministers of Australia and India in 2014, the maiden edition of AUSINDEX was held in the city in September 2015 and the last edition was conducted in June 2017 at Fremantle in Australia.”
He added, “In addition to important high-level bilateral visits by the leadership of both countries, the signing of the technical agreement on white shipping information exchange in 2015 marked a key step in maritime cooperation.”
AUSINDEX is aimed to strengthen and enhance mutual cooperation and interoperability between the Indian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. This is providing opportunities for interaction and exchange of professional views between the personnel of the two navies”.
In the ongoing edition of AUSINDEX, The Indian Navy is being represented by a multi-role destroyer INS Ranvijay, a multi-role stealth frigate INS Sahyadri, a missile corvette INS Kora, an anti-submarine warfare corvette INS Kiltan and a conventional submarine INS Sindhukirti. In addition to embarked helicopters such as Seaking Mk 42B and Chetak, the aviation component of the IN shall include P8I and Dornier 228 ASW maritime patrol aircraft and the Hawk Jets.
The complexity of the biennial maritime exercise over the past four years has steadily increased. The exercises this year shall cover all three dimensions comprising anti-submarine warfare exercises, air defence exercises, anti-surface warfare exercises including live-fire drills, replenishment at sea, and cross deck flying. The number of units being fielded by both navies in the bilateral exercise is the highest till date. Almost 2,000 personnel from both navies are participating in the exercise. This year, 55 American and 20 New Zealand military personnel embarked onboard the RAN ships would also be witnessing the exercises.
