BEIJING: (HRNW) Chief of Naval Staff of Pakistan Admiral M Amjad Khan Niazi has said that the interaction between the navies of Pakistan and China provided an opportunity to enhance interoperability, share experience to optimally utilize common sensors, iron out procedures and “further elevate our relations.”
In that regard, the Sea Guardian series of exercises serve the objectives of fostering interoperability and sharing professional experience to deal with contemporary traditional and non-traditional security threats, he said in an exclusive interview with Global Times.
Pakistan Navy plans to host the AMAN-23 multinational maritime exercise in February this year, with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, having taken part in previous editions, are again expected to participate.
China and Pakistan have been maintaining close naval and maritime exchanges and cooperation in recent years, including joint drills.
Elaborating briefly on the upcoming exercise, Admiral Niazi said that Exercise AMAN was the premier multinational maritime exercise of Pakistan Navy which “has been conducted biennially since 2007.”
“The exercise is conducted with the aim to develop synergy between participating naval units to tackle maritime security challenges by enhancing interoperability between regional and extra regional navies at different levels of technological prowess”, he added.
He said that the eighth series of Exercise AMAN would be held in Karachi from February 10 to 14, this year.
“The format of the exercise has two distinct phases: First, the harbor phase which will be held from February 10 to 12, followed by the sea phase from February 13 to 14”, he added.
During the harbor phase, various professional and social activities will be conducted to share experiences on contemporary maritime security challenges and coordinate modalities of sea exercises.
The sea phase includes exercises and an international fleet review to demonstrate unified resolve against maritime terrorism, piracy, and other prevalent illicit activities at sea.
Admiral Niazi said that Pakistan Navy was expecting a wide range of participation from across the globe, as 43 countries participated in Exercise AMAN-21, despite COVID-19 restrictions.
He expressed the confidence that Exercise AMAN-23 would contribute significantly in fulfilling the common desire of participating maritime nations for regional peace and shared prosperity through such collaborative efforts.
Regarding purpose and goals for conducting the exercise, he said that there were a number of non-traditional threats that prevailed in the wider Indian Ocean region such as terrorism, piracy, drugs smuggling, and arms trafficking.