NEW DELHI: Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Adelaide and Anzac arrived in Visakhapatnam on Monday for Exercise ‘Indo-Pacific Endeavour’ with the Indian Navy. The Australian Defence Ministry in a statement said, “Indo-Pacific Endeavour (IPE), one of Australia’s key regional engagement activities, returns to Southeast Asia and the Northeast Indian Ocean from September to November this year, visiting a record 14 countries in this iteration.”
Australian ships have embarked helicopters, and around 1,500 personnel. Their India visit began on October 30 and will continue till November 2. The Australian High Commission, New Delhi, said in a statement, “IPE will pave the way for deeper and more sophisticated operational cooperation between our defence forces.”
Meanwhile, the Indian Navy is holding its Commanders Conference in New Delhi which will also be addressed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. According to PRO, Navy, the conference will focus on addressing contemporary security paradigms while seeking ways to further enhance combat capability of the Navy and make operations more effective and synergistic with the Indian Army and Indian Air Force.
“A detailed roadmap to enhance indigenisation through ‘Make in India’ with the aim of achieving ‘AatmaNirbharta’ by 2047 will be undertaken by the commanders. The conference would also dwell upon dynamics of the geostrategic situation of the region in the backdrop of recent international developments,” said the PRO on Monday.
IPE 2022 will see engagements with the Maldives, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia, it said.
IPE began in 2017 as an annual activity coordinated by the Australian Defence Force to deliver on the promise of the 2016 Defence White Paper to strengthen Australia’s engagement and partnerships with regional security forces. “Aiming to promote security and stability in Australia’s near region through bilateral and multilateral engagement, training and capacity building.