Bangkok, July 22 (PTI): India-Thailand defence ties are set to get a boost with Navy chief Admiral RK Dhowan’s visit here from tomorrow, as the two navies explore avenues to strengthen their relationship in line with India’s ‘Act East Policy.’
“It is a goodwill visit, a timely visit offering scope to examine ways to even further boost the already existing close cooperation,” India’s Ambassador to Thailand Harsh Vardhan Shringla told PTI.
The visit is aimed at consolidating the Navy-to-Navy cooperation, Shringla said.
India and Thailand share a common 1,000-kilometre maritime border in the Andaman Sea, where most of the trade between the two countries takes place.
The Navy-to-Navy cooperation is the leading component of the defence cooperation.
Indian Navy regularly interacts with Royal Thailand Navy through Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks. They also interact in multilateral fora like Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS), MILAN held biennially at Port Blair.
Indian Navy and Thai Navy conduct Coordinated Patrolling (CORPAT) across International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) twice a year.
During his three-day visit, Admiral Dhowan will meet his Thai counterpart Admiral Kraison Chansuwanit. He is also scheduled to interact with the Deputy Premier, the Defence Minister and the Chief of Defence Forces.
The two sides will consider furthering cooperation between the navies including hydrography, developing comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness through exchange of White Shipping information, increasing scope of coordinated patrolling among other such areas. White-shipping refers to commercial shipping information about movement of cargo ships.
Exchange of best practices and cooperation in Meteorology/ Tsunami warning is another area where both navies cooperate.
India’s relationship with Thailand has evolved into a comprehensive partnership. India’s ‘Act East’ policy has been complemented by Thailand’s ‘Look West’ policy and has assisted in bringing the two countries together.
In June, two Indian Navy vessels — stealth frigate INS Satpura and fleet tanker and support ship INS Shakti — docked at Sattahip Port out of Bangkok for two hours on a debut goodwill visit as part of the deployment of the Indian Eastern Fleet between May and July.
Their mission was to boost India-Thai bilateral relations, especially in maritime security and defence cooperation.
The Eastern Fleet conducts regular deployments in the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
In 2012, Thailand and India concluded an MoU for defence cooperation, enabling exercises, personnel exchanges and training.
The Indo-Thai coordinated patrols in the Andaman Sea, which started in 2005, aims to effectively implement the laws of the sea to prevent illegal activities.
The two countries share the view that international sea lanes must be freely accessed and safety guaranteed.
