The Indian Navy has teamed up with the navies of Thailand and Singapore for two-day trilateral maritime exercise – SITMEX-20 in the Andaman Sea which will saw advanced warships undertaking various drills, said senior military officials on Sunday.
Indian naval ships, including the indigenously-built anti-submarine warfare corvette Kamorta and missile corvette Karmuk took part in the second edition of trilateral maritime exercise, the Indian Navy said.
The two-day maritime exercises concluded on Sunday follows the Malabar series of exercises of the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The drills also witnessed the participation of three navies in a variety of exercises including naval manoeuvres, surface warfare exercises and weapon firings.
The series of exercises are conducted for enhancing the mutual interoperability and to imbibe the best practices between the Indian Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and Royal Thai Navy (RTN), the Navy added. In September 2019, the first edition of SITMEX was hosted by the Indian Navy which held off on Port Blair. It was hosted by the Singapore navy this year.
Earlier this month, the Indian Navy took part in the two-phase Malabar exercise with the navies of the US, Japan and Australia. In 1992, India and the US had begun their joint naval exercises code-named as Malabar exercises and later, Japan joined it in 2015.