India’s Mission Sagar Maitri- II to Collaborate, Garner Close Working Relationship with Eight IOR Countries

NEW DELHI: India launched expedition Sagar Maitri 2 in its bid to enhancing research and strengthening relationships with important South-East Asian countries.

“INS Sagardhwani, a Marine Acoustic Research Ship (MARS) of the Naval Physical & Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi and operated by the Indian Navy has set sail from Kochi for a two-month-long scientific mission called ‘Marine & Allied Interdisciplinary Training and Research Initiative (MAITRI)’.” Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

As conceptualised by the DRDO, the ship’s mission is in consonance with the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘Safety And Growth of All in the Region (SAGAR)’ to promote closer cooperation in socio-economic aspects, as well as greater scientific interaction, especially in ocean research in underwater acoustics, among Indian Ocean Region (IOR) countries.
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The mission by the Indian Navy and NPOL is a step towards enhancing this research and strengthening relationships with South East Asian countries and is, therefore, being termed as SAGAR MAITRI.

The prime objectives of the Sagar Maitri mission are data collection from the entire North Indian Ocean, focusing on the Andaman Sea and adjoining seas and establishing long term collaboration with eight IOR countries in the field of ‘Ocean Research and Development’.

The other IOR countries, include Oman, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Myanmar.

The ship was jointly flagged off by Vice Admiral AK Chawla, AVSM, NM, VSM, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C), Southern Naval Command (SNC) and Dr. G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary Department of Defence R & D and Chairman Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Thursday from the Naval Base, Kochi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has extended his warm wishes for the success of the Mission.

Indigenously built INS Sagardhwani was on 30 Jul 1994 will also be celebrating its Silver Jubilee.

Sagar Maitri Mission-2 commemorates the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of India’s lone research ship INS Kistna’s missions as part of the historic International Indian Ocean Expeditions (IIOE), which took place during 1962-65.

As part of the mission, INS Sagardhwani will revisit the selected tracks of INS Kistna and provide NPOL scientists ample opportunities to collaborate and garner a close working relationship with the oceanographic counterparts of the IOR countries.

The ship would be visiting Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia and would be interacting/ initiating collaborative research programmes with selected institutes in these countries.

First Sagar Maitri mission was held in April 2019, when the ship visited Yangon, Myanmar.

The Indian Navy and NPOL have been jointly working in the field of Research & Development of Sonar Systems, technologies for underwater surveillance and study of the ocean environment and underwater materials.

NPOL is continuously striving to enhance the performance of underwater sensors by undertaking research in underwater acoustics and physical oceanographic conditions through its platform INS Sagardhwani which is fitted with state of the art equipment, including newly fitted wave height measuring radar for this purpose.

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Source: NIE

Image Courtesy: Force India

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