Eastern Fleet OSD: Page 7 of 7

IN Ships Satpura and Kadmatt at Singapore

In pursuance of India’s ‘Act East’ policy, Eastern Fleet ships INS Satpura and Kadmatt are on a 4-day port visit to Singapore from 14 September 17. During the stay in harbour, various activities such as official calls, formal reception on board ships, ships open to visitors, guided tours for Indian naval personnel and professional interaction between naval personnel of both the nations have been planned.

With a joint aim to ensure seamless Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) through optimal utilisation of limited resources at sea, both the countries have already signed a Technical Agreement (TA) to share white shipping information and are also a part of the multilateral construct Regional Maritime Information Exchange (REMlX). Joint exercises SIMBEX and lMDEX between both countries are a regular phenomenon.

As part of three month long Overseas Deployment, both the ships are scheduled to visit several ASEAN countries during the deployment to commemorate 25 years of ‘Dialogue Partnership' between India and ASEAN. Incidentally, this year ASEAN also celebrates its golden jubilee and the high point of the celebrations is an International Fleet Review (lFR) in Thailand in November 2017. Both ships, Satpura and Kadmatt are also scheduled to participate in the IFR.

Both ships are sterling examples of India’s indigenous shipbuilding capability and Indian Navy’s reach during their long deployment in the South China Sea as also in the Western and Northern Pacific. Incidentally, INS Satpura had just completed a month long deployment in the Southern Indian Ocean without any port call, thereby ably demonstrating the Indian Navy’s sustenance during extended operations.