Navy Chief Admiral Hari Kumar Concludes Three-Day Australia Visit

The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral R Hari Kumar visited Australia on his first official visit to Australia from 26 to 28 September, according to the statement by the Ministry of Defence.

Navy Chief Kumar held extensive discussions with the country's top military officials during the visit to improve maritime security cooperation.

He met with Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, Chief of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Vice Admiral David Johnston, Chief of the Australian Defense Forces (ADF), Secretary of Defense Greg Moriarty and Air Marshal Robert Chipman.

Both sides expressed their commitment to pursue collaborative activities in several areas of bilateral convergence during the meetings.

The Navy stated that the discussions highlighted the necessity to increase the level of synergy and concentrated efforts for tackling the difficulties of the marine environment.

Admiral Kumar also visited the Hydrographic School and HMAS Penguin facilities of the Royal Australian Navy.

India and Australia have been collaborating closely in several bilateral and multilateral fora and have similar perspectives on several current Indo-Pacific maritime security issues.

According to the Navy, the visit of the Chief of Naval Staff further solidified the strong and long-standing bilateral relations between the two countries.

Indian Naval Ship Satpura and one P8I Maritime Patrol Aircraft of the Indian Navy participated in the multilateral exercise Kakadu, hosted by the RAN at Darwin recently.