By IANS,
New Delhi : India has joined China and Japan to coordinate their anti-piracy operations and naval deployment in the Gulf of Aden to escort merchant vessels, the Rajya Sabha was informed Wednesday.
“India, China and Japan have recently agreed for better coordination amongst their naval ships deployed for anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden,” Defence Minister A.K. Antony said in a written reply.
He said as per the convoy coordination plan implemented since January this year, one of the three navies will be designated as ‘reference navy’ for three months and it will first propose its escort schedule for the period.
“The other navies then de-conflict their escort schedules with the dates of the reference navy. The reference navy is rotated every three months in the alphabetical order,” he added.