CHONBURI, June 25 (TNA) – Two of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet ships carrying up to 500 naval personnel under the command of Rear Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh have entered Sattahip in the eastern province of Chonburi on a four-day visit as part of a two month long operational deployment to Southeast Asia and Southern Indian Ocean.
The visit of the Indian warships INS Satpura and INS Kamorta to Thailand ending on June 27 aims at strengthening bilateral ties and fostering inter-operability between navies of the two friendly nations, in light of India’s foreign policy “Act East” and Thailand’s “Look West”.
Rear Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh said it was the Indian navy’s first-ever call in to Sattahip Port, and this would highlight longstanding naval relations with Thailand since 1964, particularly through organised bilateral training exercises and dialogue on maritime security.
Rear Admiral Ajendra said the Indian Navy had hoped to enhance interoperability in maritime operations with the Thai side to mutually safeguard security and economic interests in local maritime borders.
Separately, Indian Ambassador to Thailand Harsh Vardhan Shringla congratulated the Indian Navy’s successful visit as a testament to New Delhi’s unprecedented Act East policy, which was ASEAN-centric, aimed at improving Indian foreign relations with Southeast Asian countries, saying India’s foreign policy would walk in parallel with Thailand’s Look West policy which had given additional importance to countries in South Asia.
The Indian Ambassador added that among the 10 ASEAN countries, Thailand was on India’s high-priority list.
During the stay in habour, various activities such as official calls, reception on board, guided tours and profession interaction between personnel of both the navies, are planned. Other port calls undertaken during this deployment include Singapore, Jakarta of Indonesia, Freemantle of Australia and Sihanoukville of Cambodia.
For this deployment, the two warships also participated in the bilateral exercise SIMBEX-15 with the Royal Singapore Navy from 20-26 May 2015.(TNA)
