On 17th August, Atalanta Flagship ESPS Numancia departed Muscat and conducted different Sea Joint Activity with two Indian Navy destroyers, INS Chennai and INS Kochi, in the Gulf of Oman.
These exercises count on a series of previous landmarks (joint maritime exercises, escorts of World Food Programme vessels, maritime security workshops) that highlight the existing excellent relations with India regarding the maritime security in the Indian Ocean.
With these actions, Atalanta provides its share of concrete deliverables stemming from the EU – India Summit (May 2021, Porto), (which included in the Joint Statement of the Leaders’ Meeting clear expectations for “enhanced cooperation between the Indian Navy and EUNAVFOR Atalanta in the Indo-Pacific region”) and from the first-ever bilateral political dialogue on maritime security, which was held in January 2021.
EUNAVFOR Atalanta relations with relevant Asian partners were also enhanced this month with another series of exercises performed, for the first time, between Atalanta assets and the Indonesian Navy. On 14th August, KRI Sultan Iskander Muta and ITS Virginio Fasan performed similar exercises in the Gulf of Aden; it was the occasion to test also the IORIS communications platform, resulting from the EU project on critical maritime routes in Indo-Asia Pacific Ocean (CRIMARIO)
As s well as India, the EU and Indonesia share their commitment for a free, open, inclusive and rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region, reaffirming the primacy of international law through a regular security dialogue, whose last edition took place in November 2021, aiming to build combined capacity for maritime domain awareness, notably through the EU projects on Enhancing Security Cooperation in and with Asia (ESIWA) and on CRIMARIO.
Atalanta will remain attentive to any opportunity to perform this kind of activities that redound in an enhanced visibility of the EU in the Indo – Pacific region, in the framework of the EU Integrated Approach.
