Navy Chief to undertake two-day bi-lateral visit to Thailand

Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba will leave for Thailand for a two-day bilateral visit from April 17 to 19 on Wednesday.

The visit is aimed at enhancing the maritime relations between the two nations, a press release from the Navy said on Tuesday.

"The two-day visit of the Navy Chief is intended to consolidate and enhance the maritime bilateral relations between India and Thailand and also to explore new avenues of defence cooperation," it added.

During the visit, Admiral Lanba will hold bilateral discussions with General Ponpipaat Benyasri, Chief of Defence Forces, Royal Thai Armed Forces, Admiral Luechai Ruddit, Commander-in-Chief Royal Thai Navy and other senior government officials.

In addition to holding important bilateral discussions, the Admiral will visit the Royal Thai Navy and Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters in Bangkok and the 3rd Naval Area Command at Phuket.

The release further informed that both countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1947. Defence relationship between the two nations has matured over the years, with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation in January 2012. The Defence Cooperation between the two countries is being progressed through the Annual High-Level Defence Dialogue, the 7th edition of which was held in March 2019 at New Delhi.

"The co-operation between the two Naval force include operational interactions, training exchanges and hydrographic cooperation. These activities are coordinated between the navies through the medium of Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks, the 11th edition of which was held at Bangkok in March 2019."

"The Royal Thai Navy is also a member of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) and actively participates in the three IONS Working Groups, viz 'Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief' (HADR), 'Maritime Security' and 'Information Sharing and Interoperability'," the release added.