India, Myanmar navies hold discussions for strengthening ties

Myanmarese Navy chief Thura Thet Swe today met his Indian counterpart Admiral D K Joshi to discuss strengthening cooperation in areas of operations, capability building and material support.
The two navy chiefs met here and also discussed various proposals to further strengthen Navy-to-Navy cooperation in training and take the existing relationship to another level and promote capability enhancement, Navy officials said here.
Interacting after the guard of honour for the visiting dignitary, Joshi said, "Myanmar is one of our closest neighbours. We share a land border as well as a maritime border with them. On the Navy-to-Navy front we have had extremely cordial relations."

He said the Indian Navy was looking forward to taking the existing excellent interaction to the next level. Admiral Swe re-emphasised the special relationship between the two navies.
Swe also called on Defence Secretary R K Mathur, Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh and IAF Vice Chief Air Marshal Arup Raha.
He will be visiting the Southern Naval Command in Kochi tomorrow and day-after during which he will go to various naval training schools and facilities there.

He is scheduled to visit the Eastern Naval Command on Wednesday.
India and Myanmar have maintained strong ties in the past several years and India has helped that country by providing it surveillance aircraft such as the Islander a few years ago.

The two navies also hold co-ordinated patrol exercises called CORPAT near their maritime boundaries.