Amidst the growing presence of the Chinese Navy’s presence in the Indian Ocean, the first ever ASEAN-India maritime exercise (AIME-2023) will start from Tuesday. The week-long drills (May 2-8, 2023) aimed at “enhancing interoperability and exchange of best practices among participating navies” is expected to be inaugurated by Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar.
New Delhi’s move to increase its maritime security cooperation with the ASEAN region comes amidst China’s growing belligerence not only on land in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control but also in the Indian Ocean, South China Sea, east China sea, Taiwan Strait and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific Region.
With AIME-2023 India becomes the 4th ASEAN dialogue partner, after Russia, China and the US to hold the ASEAN+1 maritime exercise in which navies of the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Brunei, will be participating. The maiden exercise will be conducted off the coast of Singapore and will feature harbour and at-sea events off the coast of Singapore.
INS Satpura and INS Delhi with RAdm Gurcharan Singh, the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet embarked onboard has reached Singapore to take part in the inaugural AIME-2023.
From May 2-4 the Harbour Phase of the exercise will be conducted at Changi Naval Base and followed by the Sea Phase to be conducted from May 7-8, in the South China Sea. According to an official statement the AIME 2023 will provide an opportunity for the Indian Navy and ASEAN navies to conduct seamless operations in the maritime domain and to work closely.
More about the participating ships
INS Delhi is India’s first indigenously-built guided missile destroyer and INS Satpura, is also indigenously built guided missile stealth frigate and are fitted with state-of-the art weapons and sensors.
According to the Indian Navy both are part of the Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam and under the operational command of the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Naval Command.
During their port call at Singapore the ships of the Indian Navy will participate in the International Maritime Security Conference (IMSC) and also International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX-23). These two events being hosted by Singapore will provide a platform for the maritime and defence sectors to showcase latest innovations and further foster engagements.
For the inaugural Asean-India Maritime Exercise, the Philippine Navy has deployed its missile frigate BRP Antonio Luna (FF-151) with a 140-man contingent of Naval Task Group 80.5 onboard.
Background
The Indian Navy is keeping a close watch on the movement and increasing presence of the Chinese PLA Navy vessels in the Indian Ocean region and docking of its ships at the ports of Pakistan.
