Relevance: GS-2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests; Important International institutions, agencies and fora.

Key Phrases: President’s Fleet Review, Milan, multilateral exercise, Naval participation, Indian Ocean littoral states, QUAD and AUKUS, Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel capabilities, ant-submarine warfare, Maritime Domain Awareness, Interoperability and jointness.

Why in News?

• The Navy is set to hold the 12th President’s Fleet Review (PFR) on February 21 at Visakhapatnam and few days from that it will host the largest multilateral exercise in this region, Milan 2022.

Key Points:

• Exercise Milan scheduled to be held from February 25 to March 4 for which 46 countries have been invited, will be the largest multilateral exercise in this region.
  • So far over 35 countries having confirmed participation and the rest have responded “positively”.
  • The harbour phase is scheduled from February 25 to 28 and the sea phase from March 1 to 4.
• The theme of the Milan exercise is ‘Camaraderie–Cohesion–Collaboration’, which aims to promote collective responsibilities of maritime security for ensuring safe and secure seas.
• The exercise will see participation of all major Navies including Quad countries, Russia and from West Asia.
  • The member nations of AUKUS (the UK, Australia & the US) too are going to be participating in this drill
  • This comes amid tensions in Ukraine and developments in West Asia.
• The invitees include all Indian Ocean littoral states and countries from South-East Asia among others.
• Countries expected to participate:
  • Neighbourhood & ASEAN member countries like Brunei, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, South Korea, Cambodia and others.
  • African nations: Mozambique, Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Tanzania, Comoros among others.
  • GCC countries: Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Bahrain & Saudi Arabia.
  • QUAD & AUKUS member countries: Japan, the US, the UK, and Australia.
  • Also, participating in this drill will be Russia, and France.

  

Fig: Countries Invited to MILAN 2022

Historical Background:

• Naval Exercise Milan began in 1995 and is held biennially and brings together Navies of all the countries in the region.
• It started off with the participation of just four countries — Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand.
• It has so far been held at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar but is now being shifted to Visakhapatnam which offers more infrastructure as well as sea space for the exercise.
• For the 2020 edition of the exercise, 41 countries of which 30 had confirmed participation but the exercise was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights of 2022 exercise:

• It has several themes such as anti-submarine warfare among others along with deliberations, including by subject matter experts.
  • For the first time, the Indian Navy is organising anti-submarine warfare exercise during the sea phase of Milan 2022.
• During the exercise, the Navy will also be showcasing its Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel (DSRV) capabilities meant to rescue submarines in distress.
  • India is one of the few countries in the region which possesses this capability.
• Milan envisages further enhancement of the scope and complexity with a focus on exercises at sea in surface, subsurface, and air domains, including weapon firings

Significance:

• The exercise aims to hone operational skills, imbibe best practices and procedures and enable doctrinal learning in the maritime domain through professional interaction between friendly navies.
• There has been huge increase in the Indian Navy’s engagements in the Indo-Pacific with several countries keen on exercising with India.
• Over the last few years, India has signed a series of logistics support agreements and white shipping agreements with a series of countries as part of efforts to improve the operational turnaround and improve logistics of the Indian armed forces in the region and also improve Maritime Domain Awareness.
• The drill is going to be about interoperability and jointness in the waters. The focus will also be on ensuring the sea lanes are open and freedom of navigation.
  • This is important as there is no stopping China which continues its bullying tactics in the Indian Ocean Region waters as well as providing assistance to neighbouring countries.
  • Both India and likeminded navies are getting together to find ways to counter the growing presence of China in the Indian Ocean Region and Indo-Pacific.
• This also means that there might be plans afoot to expand certain formats of drills like Malabar exercise.
  • The US, Japan, Australia and India every year get together for Malabar naval drill.
  • In 2021, the Indian Navy had carried out bilateral drills with countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia and Malaysia in the Indo-Pacific and South China Sea region.
  • Besides the bilateral, there could be more naval exercises in trilateral format, as well as larger formats.

Conclusion:

• Originally conceived as part of India’s Look East Policy, Milan expanded over the years to include participation from the island nations in the western Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and the IOR littorals; signifying the growing role of India and its Navy in the region.

Source: The Hindu , Financial Express

Mains Question:

Q. MILAN 2022 naval exercise suggest the diplomatic heft of India and strengthen it as Net Security provider in the Indian Ocean region. Discuss.