India begins naval games with France, Africa

India begins naval games with France, Africa

(NSI News Source Info) August 17, 2008 - New Delhi: Continuing with its policy of constructively engaging countries in West Asia and Africa to make its presence felt in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), India has sent four of its major warships to the Red Sea and the African coast on a two-month-long deployment. "The Indian ships will be present in the IOR for a while, doing some flag showing and also engaging in naval diplomacy with some port calls, mid-sea exercises and interaction with personnel from the navies of the West Asian countries and the African continent," a top Navy official said. The Indian warships--INS Delhi, INS Talwar, INS Godavari and INS Aditya-- will simultaneously be visiting countries and ports all along the eastern African coast and some ports in the Red Sea, apart from exercising with the French navy in the Gulf. The ships from Indian Western Naval Command began their journey end of July and is only expected to come back to Indian shores in mid-September, the official said. Delhi and Talwar have already completed their visit to Safaga port in Egypt in Red Sea between August 5 and 8, while Godavari and Aditya sailed to Refaet-al-Assad in Syria.

The ships would now be sailing Mombasa, the second largest port-city of Kenya, Darasalam in Nigeria, other east African ports and a couple of ports in Madagascar Island and Mauritius. "With India's economic interest in West Asia and African region increasing, Navy will be playing its diplomatic role by visiting more ports all along the coast of eastern Africa, touching the Horn of Africa," the official said. Apart from exercise with the French Navy, the Indian warships would also have Passage Exercises (Passex) with other navies off the ports during the course of their deployment in the region. "Most of the navies in eastern Africa are small in size compared to the Indian Navy. What we would be aiming during these interaction is to give them the confidence that India would come to their aid whenever there is a need, considering that we have enough experience in all aspects of naval operations, be it military, diplomatic, policing or benign" the official said. India would also conduct exercises with other navies during the deployment, related to Human Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) and Search and Rescue (SAR) operations "to both train them and to learn from them." Once the Indian ships reach Mauritius, they would also tow a Naval ship of the island nation to Kochi for refit and repair. "The Mauritian ship is from the Indian naval service. It was given to Mauritius for their use and we have an agreement with them for the ship's regular refit and repair. This towing of the Maurutian ship is under that agreement," the officer added. Navy has been engaging the navies of the IOR for a few years now regularly and it has been especially focusing on the West Asian countries and the African continent on the