Port Blair, Jan. 31: The biennial congregation of Navies at Port Blair ‘MILAN’ featuring 14 countries begins tomorrow 1st Feb. 2012. Naval Ships and delegations representing Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand will be arriving on the day of start of the congregation.
Briefing the media about the mega event, the Commander in Chief, A&N Command, Lt. Gen. NC Marwah, AVSM today said that among the 14 countries, 8 will be sending their ships.
We wish to convey the message ‘Friendship Across The Seas’, which has been ideally coined.
The event shall kick off on 2nd Feb. 2012 with a Table Top Exercise ‘Camaraderie’, which aims at undertaking joint planning in dealing with present day scenarios like piracy, gun / drug running and threat from non state-actors. This would be followed by a key event the Maritime Seminar on 3rd Feb. 2012 with the themes ‘Capacity Building Through Maritime Cooperation’ with ‘Cooperation framework for capacity building for undertaking regional HADR operations’ and ‘Maritime cooperation for ensuring unfettered use of the Seas’ being the two sub themes. Admiral Arun Prakash, the first CINCAN would be among the participants who would address among others. The inaugural address will be delivered by the Lt. Governor, A&N Islands, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Bhopinder Singh. Among the other speakers are Vice Admiral (Retd) Pradeep Kaushiva, Ambassador Hemant Kumar Singh, Lieutenant General (Retd) Prakash Menon and Mr. Euan Graham, of the RSIS, Singapore, the CINCAN said.
The next event would be ‘MILAN display’ to be held at Netaji stadium on 4th Feb. This will include spellbinding shows by the Dog Squad, Dare Devils, Malkhamb, Band as well as Khukri, Bhangra and Lehzium dances. The show is open to the general public, Marwah said.
On the 5th Feb. the major attraction of the event ‘The International City Parade’ will be held. The parade will commence at the Netaji Stadium and pass through the Marina wherein the Lt. Governor will take the salute.
Riveting displays like SU-30 display, Air Warrior Drill, Sky Diving, formation fly past by aircraft, demonstration by Marine Commandos, Search and Rescue Operation and illumination will be showcased besides march past by contingents of all participating navies.
Shows by visiting countries would include ‘Lion dance’ by Singapore and Saman & Sajojo dances by Indonesia.
All the visiting ships would be open for the general public from 2nd -4th Feb. 2012 in between 0930-1300 Hrs. CINCAN has thus invited the islanders to make use of this opportunity.
Meanwhile the ships of the Andaman and Nicobar Command will be carrying out exercises with the visiting Naval ships. These exercises would be the base for future joint HADR operations and exercises between the Navies, the CINCAN explained.
“We have received full support and cooperation from the Lt. Governor, A&N Islands. The LG will also be holding a At Home Function for the participating navies”, Marwah added.