Indian Naval Ships Shivalik And Kadmatt Arrive At Brunei For Defence Exercise Aimed At Enhancing Bilateral Ties

The bilateral exercise would conclude with a Passage Exercise with Royal Brunei Navy at sea on August 12, 2021.

The harbour interactions and exercises at sea aim to strengthen India-Brunei defence relations.

New Delhi:  Indian Naval Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt arrived at Muara, Brunei on Monday as part of their deployment to South East Asia. This development comes as India continues to focus on the 'Act East' Policy.

The exercise will provide an opportunity to both the navies to enhance inter-operability, gain from best practices and develop a common understanding of procedures for Maritime Security Operations, the official release by Ministry of Defence stated.

The defence ministry said that the harbour interactions and exercises at sea aim to consolidate the strong bond shared by the two navies. The initiative is another step towards strengthening India-Brunei defence relations.

During the stay at Muara, Brunei, the crew of both the ships will participate in various bilateral professional interactions with Royal Brunei Navy, the ministry informed.

It was further revealed that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, all interactions and exercises will be conducted strictly as 'Non-Contact’ activities, devoid of any physical contact between the personnel of participating navies.

The bilateral exercise would conclude with a Passage Exercise with Royal Brunei Navy at sea on August 12, 2021.

Indian Navy Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt are the latest indigenously designed and built, multi-role Guided Missile Stealth Frigate and Anti-Submarine Corvette respectively, and form part of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet based at Visakhapatnam under the Eastern Naval Command.

The two ships are equipped with a versatile array of weapons and sensors, can carry multi-role helicopters, and represent the maturation of India's warship-building capabilities.

On completion of bilateral exercise with Royal Brunei Navy, the ships will head to Guam to participate in exercise MALABAR-21 with the Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the United States Navy (USN), the defence ministry informed.