Chief of
Australian Navy Vice Adm Mark Hammond, is on a three-day official visit to
India from March 9 – 11 .During the visit, VAdm Hammond interacted with Adm R Hari Kumar, Chief of the
Naval Staff, at New Delhi on March 10 Mar 23. He was given an impressive Guard of Honour on the South Block Lawns.
During the interaction, avenues to strengthen
the growing cooperation between the two nations and navies, cooperative ways to deal with prevalent/
emerging maritime security challenges, and initiatives to enhance collaboration
and interoperability towards realization of a Free, Open and Inclusive
Indo-Pacific/ IOR, were discussed.
Indian Navy closely cooperates with Royal
Australian Navy on numerous issues, which include operational interactions such as AUSINDEX,
KAKADU and P8 operations, training exchanges, exchange of White Shipping
Information and Subject Matter Experts in various fields, all of which are
coordinated through the medium of Staff Talks meetings conducted annually.
In addition,
warships from both Navies regularly make port calls at each other’s ports and
interact in multilateral exercises such as MALABAR, RIMPAC, LaPerouse, etc.
Both Navies have also been cooperating towards exploring new avenues for
collaboration in the areas of Defence industries, Defence innovation and
emerging Defense technologies in support of ‘Make in India’ vision. |