UAE, India to hold first ever joint naval exercise
abu dhabi — Naval ships of the UAE and India will hold a firstever joint exercise — ‘Gulf Star 1’ — giving a further boost to bilateral ties.
Two Indian Navy ships INS Gomati (Guided Missile Frigate) and INS Kolkata (Guided Missile Destroyer) arrived at Port Zayed in the Capital on Saturday for the ‘Harbour Phase’ of the exercise and will participate with UAE Navy ships for the ‘Sea Phase’ from Tuesday.
The joint exercise is part of the comprehensive strategic partnership and aims to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation.
Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Navdeep Singh Suri, said:
“INS Kolkata and INS Gomati have formidable capabilities and the time that they spend with the friendly naval forces of the UAE will establish a strong platform for us to advance our shared maritime security objectives in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.”
The visit by Indian naval ships comes as part of the understanding reached at the highest level between the leadership of the two countries, which aims at furthering cooperation in defence through regular high-level visits, train-ing programmes, joint exercises, participation in defence exhibitions and ship visits, port calls.
India and the UAE also have a defence cooperation agreement, renewed in 2014, providing a general framework for strengthening bilateral defence ties.
Both Indian ships are based at Mumbai as a part of the Western Fleet, under the administrative and operational control of the Western Naval Command. INS Gomati is being commanded by Captain Ravi Kumar Dhingra and INS Kolkata is being commanded by Captain Susheel Menon.
‘Gulf Star 1’ exercise will last till Thursday.
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