By Raju Vernekar
Mumbai, March 17:
The Indian Naval ship attached to the Western Fleet recently visited Sri Lanka as part of a maritime partnership exercise between the two navies. On departure from the port of Colombo, Indian Naval ships Chennai and Teg exercised with Sri Lanka Navy ship Sindurala.
The smoothly conducted exercise began with a simulated situation of asymmetric threat against ships leaving harbour by fast attack crafts of the Sri Lankan Navy. Thereafter, as part of seamanship exercises, ships of both navies made approaches for towing, maintained station for Replenishment at Sea, and undertook close distance manoeuvring.
Chetak helicopter of the Indian Navy also participated in the exercise. The exercise ended with the traditional steam past with the Sri Lankan ship approaching the column of Indian Navy ships from a reciprocal direction and personnel manning their ship-sides and waving goodbye to each other. The professional interaction between the navies was extremely fruitful and enhanced interoperability between them, an official statement said.
During the visit Rear Admiral Sameer Saxena, Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet (FOCWF) called on Admiral Prof. Jayanath Colombage, the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka. Similarly, the Commanding Officers of INS Chennai and INS Teg called on Rear Admiral AUC De Silva, Commander of Western Naval Area of Sri Lanka.
As part of the visit, a friendly volleyball match was also played between personnel of the two navies to enhance mutual interaction at the junior levels. The Indian ships were kept open for the general public, school children, serving naval personnel, and children with special needs.
FOC-in-C, Eastern Naval Command visits Mumbai
In the meanwhile, Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command on a three-day visit to the Western Naval Command discussed issues related to maritime security.
On arrival, on Monday, the Admiral laid the wreath at the Gaurav Stambh (martyrs’ memorial), Naval Dockyard in South Mumbai. On the occasion, he was presented the Guard of Honour. Thereafter, he called on Vice Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command.
Both the officers discussed issues related to operational importance. The combined Area of Responsibility of the Western & Eastern Naval Commands is about ten times the landmass of India.
