INDIA. Mumbai: In pursuance of India’s “Act East” policy, Indian Naval ships “Shivalik” (Guided Missile Frigate) and “Kadamatt”( Anti-Submarine Corvette), reached Muara port in Brunei, as part of their deployment for passage exercise to South East Asia on Monday.
Brunei is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in South East Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, the country is surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak.
During the stay at Muara, the crew of both ships will participate in various bilateral professional interactions with Royal Brunei Navy. The exercise will provide an opportunity to both the navies to enhance inter-operability, gain from best practices and develop a common understanding of procedures for Maritime Security Operations.
The harbour interactions and exercises at sea aim to consolidate the strong bond shared by the two navies and would be another step towards strengthening India-Brunei defence relations. The bilateral exercise would conclude with a Passage Exercise with Royal Brunei Navy at sea on August 12. In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, all interactions and exercises will be conducted strictly as ‘Non-Contact’ activities and hence would be devoid of any physical contact between the personnel of participating navies, an official statement said.
“Shivalik” and “Kadmatt” are the latest indigenously designed and built, multi-role Guided Missile Stealth Frigate and Anti-Submarine Corvette respectively, and form part of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command. The two ships are equipped with a versatile array of weapons and sensors, can carry multi-role helicopters, and represent the maturation of India’s warship-building capabilities.
The Indian Naval task group sailing towards the region as part of India’s “Act East Policy” included Guided Missile Destroyer Ranvijay, Guided Missile Frigate Shivalik, Anti-Submarine Corvette Kadmatt and Guided Missile Corvette Kora proceeded on an Overseas Deployment to South East Asia, the South China Sea and Western Pacific from early Aug 2021 for over two months.
On completion of bilateral exercise with Royal Brunei Navy, the ships will head to Guam to participate in exercise MALABAR-21 with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN), and the United States Navy (USN). Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in Micronesia sub- region of the western Pacific Ocean.
International Army Games -2021 in Russia
In another development, a 101 member contingent of the Indian Army will proceed to Russia to participate in International Army Games-2021 to be held between August 22 and September 04. The contingent will participate in Army Scout Masters Competition (ASMC), Elbrus Ring, Polar Star, Sniper Frontier, and Safe Route games showcasing various drills in High Altitude Area terrain, operations in snow, sniper actions, combat engineering skills in obstacle-ridden terrain in the various competitions.
The contingent will also contribute two observers (one each) for the Open Water and Falcon Hunting games in which Pontoon Bridge laying and UAV crew skills will be showcased by the participating teams.
The Indian Army contingent has been selected out of the best from various arms after three levels of screening. Participation in these annual games is a reflection of the level of professionalism of the Indian Army amongst the world Armies. The competition also fosters military to military cooperation while building upon the best practices of participating nations. Previously India stood first amongst the eight countries that had participated in Army Scouts Master Competition 2019 in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
