Indian Naval ships visit South Africa

Indian Naval ships Kolkata, Trikand, and Aditya arrived at Durban on Tuesday, for a three day visit, an official statement said.

The statement issued by Indian Navy called is a demonstration of India's "commitment to its ties with South Africa and to maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region".

The ships are part of the Indian Navy's Western Fleet based at Mumbai under the Western Naval Command and are on a two month long deployment to the Western Indian Ocean.

Guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata is commanded by Captain Rahul Vilas Gokhale, Talwar-class guided missile frigate INS Trikand is commanded by Captain Arjun Dev Nair and replenishment and repair ship INS Aditya is commanded by Captain Vidyanshu Srivastava.

During the visit, the warships will have professional interactions with the South African Naval Forces for enhancing co-operation and sharing the nuances of naval operations including combating maritime threats of terrorism and piracy.

Calls on senior government and military authorities, training and technical cooperation measures with their South African counterparts, sporting and cultural interactions, aimed at strengthening ties and mutual understanding between the two forces, are also planned.

The last visit by an Indian Naval ship to South Africa was in November 2014, when Indian Naval Ship Teg made port call at Simon's Town and Cape Town as part of Exercise IBSAMAR, a trilateral maritime exercise involving navies of Brazil, India and South Africa.

The South African Navy also participated in International Fleet Review hosted by India in February 2016 and was represented by SAN ship Spioenkop.

--IANS

ao/vd