Rear Admiral Gurcharan Singh CSO (Ops), Western Naval Command, Indian Navy, Rear Admiral PS Mahawithana, Director General Operations, Sri Lanka Navy and Colonel Hilmy from Maldives National Defence Force were among the senior officers that participated in the inaugural session of TTX-2021 on 14 July.
The exercise is being coordinated by the Maritime Warfare Centre, Mumbai.
TTX-2021 is aimed at enhancing mutual understanding and exchange of best practices/ procedures for countering common trans-national maritime crime like curbing narcotics and assistance in Maritime Search and Rescue in the region. The exercise gains additional relevance in light of the successful Operation Sagar Aaraksha 2 executed in support of MV X Press Pearl.
The seamless cooperation achieved between the Navies was the result of continued engagements like the TTX to evolve common SOPs.
TTX-2021 exemplifies the deep trilateral engagement between India-Maldives-Sri Lanka which has strengthened immensely in maritime domain over the past years.
Interaction between the three neighboring counties in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) has also grown significantly in recent years, in consonance with India’s policy of ‘Neighbourhood First’ and vision of ‘Security and Growth for all in the Region (SAGAR)’.
It may be recalled that India, Sri Lanka, and Maldives agreed to focus on ways of enhancing maritime security cooperation in the IOR at the fourth National Security Adviser (NSA)-level trilateral meeting held in Colombo in November last year. The meeting was attended by India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Defence Secretary General (Retd) Kamal Gunaratne, and Maldives' Defence Minister Mariya Didi.
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