Indian Coast Guard Ship “Samarth” has on Saturday arrived in Maldives to conduct a joint surveillance patrol.
Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) revealed this via twitter on early Saturday.
RaajjeMV understands that “Samarth” is scheduled to return after concluding the joint surveillance patrol to ensure that there are no illegal activities being carried out in the Maldives Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), on 17th January.
The joint surveillance patrol has been conducted serially since 2009.
ICGS Samarth had previously held training programs in Vietnam and Indonesia as well.
This comes at a time officers of both Maldives and India are jointly conducting training programs under the name “Exercise Dosti” annually.
“Exercise Dosti” aims to strengthen military ties between Maldives and India as well as achieving inter-operability. The naval exercise further aims to enrich both countries to conduct counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations to ascertain the safety of sea farers in the region.
ICGS Samarth arrives in Maldives today for a joint surveillance patrol, conducting from 13 -17 January with MNDF Coast Guard. The purpose of this joint surveillance patrolling is to ensure that no illegal activities are carried out in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Maldives pic.twitter.com/oG5vNUPMHr
— Maldives National Defence Force (@MNDF_Official) January 12, 2019
