Nothing New in Visit of Foreign Warship to Indian Port: Antony

New Delhi, June 25 (UNI) Dismissing red signals on the issue as unfounded, Defence Minister AK Antony today stressed there was ''nothing new'' in foreign warships being permitted visits to Indian ports.

Allowing -- for the first time -- a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to dock at Chennai port was part of efforts to expand defence cooperation ''with important nations'', the Defence Minister told mediapersons here when quizzed about the permission in this regard accorded to USS Nimitz.

''This is part of our growing defence cooperation with various countries,'' Minister Antony told mediapersons after laying the foundation stone for the office here of the Controller General of Defence Accounts.

Foreign Naval warships -- including ones from UK, France and Russia -- were always visiting Indian ports, the Defence Minister observed.

''Sometimes they berth in Chennai, sometimes in Goa and sometimes in other places....

''Our own warships are visiting other ports too,'' the Minister said adding that it had been happening ''for the past so many years''.

The 100,000-tonne-displacement US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier -- with 90 fighter jets besides helicopters on board -- was currently on a six-month deployment in the Arabian sea.

The Minister pointed out that ''as part of our policy, we are developing close defence cooperation with almost all important countries''.

In this connection, he said, India and China were to conduct for the first time joint land forces exercises.

The expansion of defence cooperation was aimed at allowing the Indian Armed Forces international exposure, experience and knowledge about the combat strategies of different countries, Minister Antony said.

Recently the Indian Navy had undertaken multi-lateral exercises with seven nations including the United States, Russia, Japan and Vietnam, he added.

UNI