Royal Australian Navy ships HMAS Adelaide and Anzac arrived in Visakhapatnam on Monday for Exercise 'Indo-Pacific Endeavour' with the Indian Navy.
Indo-Pacific Endeavour (IPE), one of Australia's key regional engagement activities, returns to Southeast Asia and the Northeast Indian Ocean from September to November this year, visiting a record 14 countries in this iteration, read Australian Defence Ministry press release.
IPE 2022 will see engagements with the Maldives, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.
These engagements are supported by an Australian Defence Force Maritime Task Unit of Royal Australian Navy ships and embarked Army members as well as Royal Australian Air Force air mobility aircraft for fly-in-fly-out engagements, marking a total composition of 1800 personnel, five ships and 11 helicopters, added the release.
IPE began in 2017 as an annual activity coordinated by the Australian Defence Force to deliver on the promise of the 2016 Defence White Paper to strengthen Australia's engagement and partnerships with regional security forces.
Aiming to promote security and stability in Australia's near region through bilateral and multilateral engagement, training and capacity building. Australia is committed to making effective contributions to humanitarian and security efforts in the region, said the release.
Australia's vision for the Indo-Pacific is a region that is secure, open, prosperous and resilient.
Coordinated by the Australian Defence Force, the activity will include military exercises, workshops, training, sporting events, and cultural activities with Indian armed forces partners.
It will deepen cooperation on issues ranging from amphibious operations to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, to gender, peace and security.
Commodore Mal Wise AM, Commander IPE22 said, "I look forward to leading Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2022 to make new relationships and strengthen our ties in the region. We plan to learn from our partners all the way from India to Indonesia."
"Regional security is more than a military task. I am pleased that a range of government agencies are contributing to Indo-Pacific Endeavour as we work together to support a peaceful and prosperous neighbourhood," Commodore Wise added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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