Biennial naval exercise concludes

The biennial naval exercise, Milan 2014, involving 17 nations and 15 ships concluded in Andaman and Nicobar islands today.
The 17 countries, including India, had come together for the exercise, making it the biggest edition since its inception in 1995.
The six-day event started on February 4 and the past few days saw the maritime forces of these nations come closer professionally and building confidence in interoperability.
It was the first time that countries from the western IOR participated, including two African nations -- Kenya and Tanzania -- besides island nations of Mauritius, Maldives and Seychelles.
It was also the first time that the Philippines and Cambodia participated, a statement from the Navy said here.

The engagement included an international seminar on Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) with participating nations like Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines sharing lessons from their recent first-hand experiences in handling disasters like cyclones, earthquakes and tsunamis.

In his keynote address, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral D K Joshi emphasised the need for developing capacity and procedures based on common principles and considerations.
He said rapid deployment, co-ordination, logistics and medical aid are cardinal considerations for founding common procedures for HADR operations.
A table-top exercise on HADR termed 'Rahat' was conducted yesterday in which delegates from the participating nations were presented with a topical situation on HADR operations.

Delegates grouped into multinational teams evolved a combined response to the eventuality and various options were analysed during the course of the exercise.
The participants were -- Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Thailand.