Cooperation Among Countries Can Tackle Maritime Challenges: Navy Chief Admiral

Indian Navy Chief Admiral R Hari Kumar on Saturday underscored the need for cooperation among countries to tackle the maritime challenges, which are transnational and cannot be addressed by any individual nation alone.

He was addressing a panel discussion on the Future of Conflict, Lessons from the Third Decade.

The panel representative includes Adm. John C Aquilino, Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command of the United States, Adm. Sir Ben Key, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, UK, Gen. Koji Yamazaki, Japan’s Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Defence, and Vice Adm Angus Topshee, Commander, Royal Canadian Navy.

The Navy Chief Admiral’s comments came following foreign ministers of Quad countries’ call for peace in Ukraine that underlined China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region and its attempts to block the designation of terrorists at the UN.

Addressing the significance of working together in groups, Kumar marked the US Navy’s 2015 talks of a 1,000-ship Navy, a friendly navy partnership. “We at the maritime domain always look forward to finding how to cooperate and work together,” he said.

He further stated, currently, the countries and their navies are seeking issue-based converges, so agreement on certain things is likely to happen but not necessarily on others.

Commenting on the Indian Ocean National Symposium grouping, which has 25 countries in partnership and eight observers, the Columbo Security Conclave, Goa Maritime Conclave and others, the Navy Chief emphasised working in smaller groups serves multiple purposes.

It helps in generating great trust among partnered countries, it is about building capacity that helps increase interoperability, better domain awareness and regular engagements. All facilitating maritime security, he added.