Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi said on Tuesday that the interaction between the naval forces of Pakistan and China and joint drills provided an opportunity to enhance interoperability, exchange experience to fully utilize sensors, iron out procedures and further consolidate bilateral ties.
In an exclusive interview with Global Times, he said that the Sea Guardian series of exercises serve the purposes of fostering interoperability and exchanging professional experience to deal with traditional and non-traditional security threats.
Pakistan Navy (PN) plans to host the AMAN-23 multinational maritime exercise in February, with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, are again expected to participate like the previous editions.
Pakistan and China have been maintaining close maritime and naval exchanges and cooperation in recent years, including joint exercises.
Elaborating briefly on the upcoming exercise, Admiral Niazi said that Exercise AMAN is conducted with the aim to develop synergy between navies of the region and extra-region at different levels of technological prowess since 2007.
Wide range of participation in drills is expected
He said that the 8th edition of Exercise AMAN would be held in Karachi from 10 to 14 February. PN was expecting a wide range of participation in drills from across the world, as forty-three countries took part in AMAN-21 despite the COVID-19 restrictions.
He expressed his confidence that the new edition would contribute considerably to meeting the common desire of participating maritime countries for regional peace and prosperity through such collaborative efforts.
The Naval Chief further said there are a number of non-traditional threats that existed in the wider Indian Ocean region such as piracy, terrorism, drug smuggling, piracy, and arms trafficking.
He said that the drills were significant in fostering regional cooperation for the maintenance of good order at sea, exchanging experiences, improving interoperability, and showing common resolve against terrorism and organized crimes in the maritime field.
