India to Strengthen Naval Co-operation with Bangladesh
In a move towards strengthening its defence ties with Bangladesh, India will be exploring new avenues for naval cooperation towards achieving comprehensive maritime security in the Bay of Bengal.
To this effect, Indian Chief of Naval Staff Admiral RK Dhowan reached Bangladesh on a four-day visit to consolidate the bilateral defence ties.
Dhowan paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her Sangsad Bhaban office on Monday. At the meeting, he observed that the partnership between Bangladesh Navy and Indian Navy is excellent and there are many things to learn from this partnership.
The Chief of Naval Staff is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with the three Service Chiefs at Dhaka as well as call on the President during his stay at Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Navy has been invited to attend the prestigious International Fleet Review, to be organized by the Indian Navy at Visakhapatnam in February next year.
The Indian and Bangladeshi Navies cooperate with each other in various areas of technical training, participation in Victory Day celebrations, Navy to Navy Staff Talks as well as through interactions at various multilateral fora such as the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium and the Western Pacific Naval Symposium.
The Bangladeshi Navy has been regularly participating in the MILAN series of exercises conducted by Indian Navy at Port Blair and warships from both Navies call at each other's ports.
These avenues for cooperation provide excellent opportunity for professional exchanges, developing interoperability and to build camaraderie, an official statement said.
Navy Chief Admiral will discussed issues like exchange of white shipping information towards development of comprehensive maritime domain awareness, cooperation in maritime infrastructure development, training and exchange of subject matter experts.
Meanwhile, the standard operation procedure (SOP), a vital component for introducing coastal shipping service between Bangladesh and India, is yet to get approval from New Delhi even nearly six months after it was sent by Dhaka, official sources said.
The SOP contains detailed written instructions for achieving uniformity of the performance of a specific function. Bangladesh in September last year sent the draft of both SOP and agreement to India for its approval as part of bilateral efforts to start shipping service through coastal routes.