Maritime situation has become complex: Naval chief

Visakhapatnam, May 29 (UNI) Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta today said the maritime security environment in the Indian Ocean Region had become complex, fluid and significantly challenging with a large presence of extra regional forces.

Inaugurating the three-day Naval Commanders Conference-2007 at the Eastern Naval Command Headquarters here, Admiral Mehta said there had been a dramatic increase in asymmetric threats from non-state actors in the country's neighbourhood, portending the most challenging maritime security situations and likely contingencies in the region.

This trend was likely to continue in the foreseeable future and it was essential the Indian Navy was adequately geared to neutralize these threats, he said.

''Low intensity maritime operations'' would therefore be one of the areas of focus during the conference to ensure the Navy remains an operationally focused force capable of dealing with the changing environment of the 21st century.

''In the coming years, the Navy would be called upon to play a significantly larger role so as to be a regionally relevant force and in a position to not only counter any existing and identifiable threats, but to be able to discharge its responsibilities of maintaining, safeguarding and furthering our nation's maritime interests.'' He stressed on the need to induct new ships and weapons systems and their integration into the overall concept of operations 'which was one of the important aspects the conference would be focusing upon.' The Naval developmental plans, re-evaluation of threats and focus on certain vital warfare areas were some of the other important issues on the agenda in the conference, he added.

This year's conference was being attended by the highest echelons in the Navy from the service headquarters Command Headquarters and fleets.

UNI