GS 2: IR | Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests

Why in news?

• The naval exercise Konkan 18 between India and United Kingdom will be conducted from November 28 to December 6, 2018 off Goa with units participating from both navies. The harbour phase is scheduled from November 28 to November 30 2018 followed by the sea phase from 2-6 December, 2018.

Fleets in exercise:

• The Royal Navy will be represented by HMS Dragon, a Type 45 Class Destroyer equipped with an integral Wildcat helicopter.
• The Indian Navy will field INS Kolkata, the first ship of latest Kolkata class destroyers, equipped with integral Seaking and an IN submarine.
• The thrust of the exercise this year would be on Anti-Air warfare, Anti-Surface Warfare, Anti-Submarine Warfare, Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) and Seamanship Evolutions.

Background and objectives:

• Naval cooperation between India and United Kingdom is based on long term strategic relationship between both countries.
• Both Navies have, over years have undertaken bilateral activities such as training exchanges and technical cooperation.
• Bilateral KONKAN exercise was started in 2004 and since then has grown in scale. It provides platform to periodically exercise at sea and in harbor so as to build interoperability and share best practices.
• The exercise is aimed at deriving mutual benefit from each other’s’ experiences and is indicative of continuing cooperation between two countries.
• The inter-operability achieved over years as result of such exercises has proved to be operationally beneficial to both navies.
• The naval cooperation is tangible symbol of commitment of both nations in ensuring a positive climate at sea for enhancing strategic stability and promoting economic prosperity.