Milan '22 naval exercise to commence with 40 countries taking part

New Delhi: The Indian Navy's Milan 2022, the naval exercise, is going to start on Vishakhapatnam on Friday. The fresh edition is to be the largest one ever with 40 countries participating in the exercise on waters, The Indian Express reported.

The exercise, occurring once in two years, but this time after four years, is to last nine days as the harbour phase commences on Friday and the sea phase on March 1. The last edition was called off in 2020 after the advent of the pandemic.

The Indian Navy said in a statement on Wednesday that the new edition's theme is 'Camaraderie – Cohesion – Collaboration' and aims to project India as a responsible maritime power in the world. The event will see participants sending their warships of delegations in order to sharpen the operational skill, take away best practices and procedures and doctrinal learning in the maritime domain. All this are to be achieved through professional and friendly interactions.

The statement said that the exercise would be larger in scope and complexity. It will focus on activities at sea such as surface, sub-surface and air domains and weapon firing.

Milan, the multilateral naval exercise began in 1995 when four countries, namely Indonesia, Singapore, Srilanka and Thailand, were the only participants. It was usually held at the Andaman and Nicobar Command, but this time the event was shifted to the Eastern Naval Command, which has larger waters.