India has handed over an Inshore Survey Vessel (ISV) to Mauritius, a neighbour in the Indian Ocean region, even as another Indian warship reached Maldives on Tuesday to join a five-day bilateral maritime exercise with their Coast Guard.
Navy chief Admiral D K Joshi, who was on a six-day visit to Mauritius between February 2 and 7, handed over ISV Pathfinder to the Mauritian Minister for Housing and Land as a mark of the strong maritime ties between the two Indian Ocean nations, a Navy release said here on Tuesday.
“The gifting of the ISV is in consonance with the ongoing hydrographic co-operation between the two countries and is yet another step in this direction. The cooperation extends to support for the Mauritian National Coast Guard and involves several facets of capacity building and capability enhancement,” the release said.
Meanwhile, INS Kalpeni, an indigenously-built fast attack craft of the Indian Navy, reached Male for the joint exercise with the Maldivian National Defence Force Coast Guard.
“The aim of the exercise is to jointly conduct maritime security patrol in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Maldives,” a Ministry of External Affairs release said.
During Kalpeni’s visit to Male, the MNDF Coast Guard personnel will undertake various operational training with the Indian naval personnel.
“The joint patrol is aimed at increasing maritime security in the Indian Ocean region, especially in the waters around Maldives,” the release added.
Kalpeni is a completely indigenous new generation naval ship designed and built by Kolkata-based Garden Reach Ship Builder and Engineers (GRSE). It is named after an important island of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
The ship’s duties include coastal surveillance and patrol, anti-smuggling, anti-piracy, fisheries protection, search and rescue operations and naval escort operations.