Singapore to take part in Indian navy exercise

Singapore, July 29: The republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) will be participating in Exercise Malabar 07-2, held by the Indian Navy (IN) and the United States Navy (USN) in the Bay of Bengal.

Singapore Defence Ministry in a statement issued today stated, the RSN accepted an invitation, in October last year, to participate in a multi-lateral exercise in the Indian Ocean.

The RSN frigate, RSS Formidable, would be taking part in the exercise, which would be conducted from September 4-9.

The Singapore navy was looking forward to a good exercise with the navies involved, said the statement.

''The RSN supports multilateral naval cooperation and participates in a number of exercises every year with friends from all around the world,'' the statement added.

These included multilateral naval exercises such as Ex Malabar 07-2 and exercises under the ambits of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium and the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

Indian navy had also separately invited the Royal Australian Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force to participate in the exercise. The RSN would also be participating in Ex Pacific Reach in November 2007, which is a submarine rescue exercise, involving the navies from several countries, including Australia, China, Japan, Pakistan, Korea, as well as the United States.

The RSN aims to derive good professional value from such exercises, allowing it to benchmark itself against other established navies, the statement said, adding that such multilateral exercises promoted a greater understanding and interoperability among the participating navies.

UNI