INDIA. Mumbai: An MoU for exchange of White Shipping Information between Indian Navy (IN) and Royal Navy of Oman (RNO) was signed at Maritime Security Centre (MSC) in Muscat during the ongoing visit of the Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) to Oman, on Monday.
The agreement was signed by Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS)
And Rear Admiral Saif bin Nasser bin Mohsen Al-Rahbi, Commander of Royal Navy of Oman (CRNO). The signing of the MoU between the Royal Navy of Oman and the Indian Navy would facilitate information exchange on merchant shipping traffic, through Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region( IFC-IOR), India and Maritime Security Centre (MSC), Oman, and contribute to enhanced maritime safety and security in the region, an official statement said.
The Indian Ocean Region(IOR), given its strategic location and being a home to a vast majority of the world’s population, is considered the economic highway that drives global commerce. With over 75% of the world’s maritime trade and 50% of daily global oil consumption passing through the region, IOR is vital to world trade and the economic prosperity of many nations. It is also a fragile environment, with threats such as maritime terrorism, piracy, human and contraband trafficking, illegal and unregulated fishing, arms running and poaching being prevalent. Hence, facilitating a conducive environment to undertake legitimate maritime activities in this region is a necessity.
Response to these challenges requires enhanced situational awareness of the maritime activities in the region, to enable security agencies to function effectively. Further, the scale and scope, and the multi-national nature of the maritime activities make it untenable for individual countries to address the twin requirements of situational awareness and law enforcement. Hence, collaborative efforts between maritime nations are essential. Towards this, India has operationalized bilateral maritime information sharing with several countries and is also undertaking capacity-building measures, where requested.
WNC Sailing Championship 2021
In the meanwhile, the Western Naval Command (WNC) Sailing Championship 2021 which began on September 23, at the Indian Naval Watermanship Training Centre (INWTC), Mumbai was concluded on September 26.
A total of 59 personnel from seven teams under the WNC participated The championship was conducted in seven different classes of boats, namely, Laser (Standard), Laser (Radial), Laser (Bahiya), Enterprise, Bic-Nova, 29-er, and J24. The concept of team racing in the Enterprise-class and match racing in the J24 class of boats was reintroduced to facilitate wider participation and strengthen team spirit.
Commodore Gagan Kaushal, Command Sail Training and Yachting Coordinator (CSTYC)/HQWNC gave away medals to winners during the closing ceremony. The overall champions were the Mumbai Area team while the runners-up were the Fleet B team.
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