Trilateral Maritime Exercise SITMEX-20

• 23 Nov 2020

Why in News

Recently, the second edition of the India, Thailand and Singapore trilateral Naval exercise SITMEX-20 concluded in the Andaman Sea.

Key Points

• Background:
  
  • The Prime Minister of India, during his keynote address at Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018 announced the conduct of a trilateral naval exercise between India, Singapore and Thailand.
    
    • The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-La Dialogue is Asia’s premier defence summit. It was launched in 2002.
  • The first edition of Singapore-India-Thailand Maritime Exercise (SITMEX), hosted by Indian Navy, was conducted off Port Blair in September 2019. SITMEX is conducted annually.
• Aim: The SITMEX series of exercises are conducted to enhance mutual interoperability and imbibing best practices between Indian Navy, Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) and Royal Thai Navy (RTN).
  
  • It also aims to strengthen mutual confidence and develop common understanding and procedures towards enhancing the overall maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.
    
    • The exercise is in line with India’s SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region) vision.
• 2020 Edition: The 2020 edition of the exercise is being hosted by RSN (Singapore).
  
  • The Indian Navy deployed indigenous Anti-Submarine Warfare corvette INS Kamorta and missile corvette INS Karmuk for the exercise.
• Other Military Exercises between India and Thailand:
  
  • MAITREE (Army)
  • SIAM BHARAT (Air Force)
  • Indo-Thai CORPAT (Navy), which was conducted recently.
• Other Military Exercises between India and Singapore:
  
  • Bold Kurukshetra (Army)
  • Joint Military Training (Air Force)
  • SIMBEX (Navy)
    
    • Indian Navy (IN) is scheduled to host the 27^th edition of India - Singapore Bilateral Maritime Exercise SIMBEX-20 from 23^rd to 25^th November 2020 in Andaman Sea.
    • It has been conducted annually since 1994.

Source: PIB