India, Sri Lanka to begin joint naval exercise

[TamilNet, Sunday, 11 December 2005, 15:27 GMT]
Indian Navy and the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) will stage a joint naval exercise on Tuesday, 13 December, in Lankan waters.This is the first joint Naval exercise between the two countries to exchange the naval stategies in combatting common threats faced by the two countries territorial waters close to India and Sri Lanka, Naval sources said. Vice Admiral Suresh Mehta of the Eastern Command of the Indian Navy, the second high ranking Indian Defence official to visit Sri Lanka in one week, will be in Sri lanka today to oversee the joint exercise.

Earlier the Indian Army's Eastern Commander Lt.Gen B.S. Thakar was in Colombo last week to exchange views with regard to the defence issues.

According to a press release by the Sri Lankan Navy Headquarters the joint Indian and the Lankan Navy exercise which is scheduled to commence on December 13 will continue till December 16.

INS Sukanya and INS Kirpan of the Indian Navy and the Sri Lankan Naval crafts which were widely used during the North East conflict will be deployed in the joint exercise.