Indo-French naval exercise biggest ever this year: Barbry

The naval exercise between India and France this year is the biggest ever with a combined fleet of ten ships, including two aircraft carriers, taking part, said Sonia Barbry, Consul General of France in Mumbai, Friday.

She told PTI here that the scale of the exercise, titled Varuna 2019, also indicated that India now has a naval fleet that is of "Western standard".

Varuna 2019 began off the coast of Goa on May 1 and is slated to continue till May 10.

The French Navy's aircraft carrier FNS Charles de Gaulle, destroyers FNS Forbin and FNS Provence, frigate FNS Latouche-Treville, tanker FNS Marne and a nuclear submarine are participating this year.

From India, aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, destroyer INS Mumbai, Teg-class frigate INS Tarkash, Shishumar-class submarine INS Shankul and Deepak-class fleet tanker INS Deepak are taking part in the drill.

The exercise has close to3,000 French Naval officers participating in it.

"The annual naval exercise Varuna has been scaled up this year. That is also because India has a fleet which is up to the western standard and they have a projection on all the oceans," she told PTI in an exclusive interview.

"It is for the first time it is being held on such a big scale," she added.

"Now our cooperation with Indian Navy is technical and operational. It is a very good level of military cooperation," she added.

Barbry said the objective of the exercise is to upgrade inter-operability between the two navies.

The Consul General said France has recently upgraded security cooperation with India, specially on the issue of maritime security in Indian Ocean.

"We have islands in Indian Ocean where over a million citizens are living. We recognise India as a natural power of the Indian Ocean," she said.

"So we want more integration between our two navies so that they can work together to secure navigation in Indian Ocean and also security. We want to fight illegal fishing and check piracy in the Indian Ocean," Barbry added.

The first bilateral naval exercise between India and France was held in 1983 and it was named 'Varuna in 2001.