By IANS,
New Delhi: The Indian and Indonesian navies will undertake a two-week coordinated patrol along their international maritime boundary from Sunday to check piracy, poaching, drug trafficking and illegal immigration, a defence ministry official said here Friday.
“The purpose of the coordinated patrol is to prevent piracy, armed robberies, poaching, illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and other illegal activities,” the official said.
The 14th edition of the coordinated patrol, codenamed “Ind-Indo Corpat” will conclude Nov 5.
According to the official, the opening ceremony for the exercise would be held at Belawan in Indonesia, with the Naval Officer-in-Charge (Andaman & Nicobar Islands), Commodore P. Suresh, leading the Indian delegation. The closing ceremony will be conducted at Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
The Indian Navy will deploy a tank landing ship, INS Mahish, a fast attack craft, INS Trinkat and a Dornier aircraft for the exercise. The Indonesian Navy will deploy a corvette and a Dornier aircraft.
The operation will be under the joint control of Vice Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman & Nicobar Command and Rear Admiral Soeparno Djasmin, the Commander of the Indonesian Western Fleet Command.
India and Indonesia share an international maritime boundary of about 300 nautical miles.