Two Indian Navy warships arrive in Jakarta

New Delhi: In pursuit of India's 'Look East' and 'Act East' policies, two warships of the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet, which recently participated in the bilateral naval exercise SIMBEX with Singapore, have arrived at Jakarta, Indonesia, on a four-day visit as part of their operational deployment.

The arrival of the INS Ranvir (a guided missile destroyer) commanded by Captain Jaswinder Singh and the INS Shakti (a fleet tanker and support ship) commanded by Captain Vikram Menon is aimed at strengthening existing bilateral naval ties and for fostering inter-operability between the navies of India and Indonesia.

Both navies conduct regular coordinated patrols on their IMBL and an annual bilateral exercise is scheduled to commence between both this year.

During their stay in harbour, the ships will be involved in various activities such as official call-ons, professional interaction between personnel of both navies, hosting of a reception onboard and ship visits.

On departure, the Indian ships will take part in an exercise with the Indonesian Navy for improving inter-operability in maritime operations and search and rescue.

These two ships along with the INS Satpura (an indigenously built guided missile stealth frigate) and the INS Kamorta (an indigenously built anti-submarine corvette) are on a two-month long deployment.

During this deployment, the ships have visited Singapore and will also visit Freemantle in Australia, Kuantan in Malaysia, Sattahip in Thailand and Sihanoukville in Cambodia.

The Indian Navy's Eastern fleet, in its deployment to South East Asia and the Southern Indian Ocean, is under the command of Rear Admiral Ajendra Bahadur Singh.