As many as 13 Indian Ocean countries’ Navies had participated in the two-day symposium

With an objective to foster closer maritime relations with Indian Ocean Littoral countries, the Indian Navy held two-day Goa Maritime Symposium for the first time in virtual mode, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

Organised by Goa-based Naval War College from May 11 to May 12, the theme of the symposium was “Maritime Security and Emerging Non-Traditional Threats: A Case for Proactive Role for IOR Navies.”

As many as 13 Indian Ocean Littoral countries, which included India, Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand-participated the symposium where emphasis was laid on capacity building amongst the IOR Navies to tackle emerging common maritime threats.

With the Indian Ocean becoming the locus of the 21st century strategic landscape, the symposium will play a constructive role in bringing together the stakeholders who have a role in evolving strategies, policies and implementation mechanisms on the issues of common interest in maritime domain, the Ministry of Defence said.

In addition to presenting cooperative strategies for enhancing interoperability among partner maritime agencies, the event provided a forum for articulation of views on the crucial maritime issues, followed by theme based discussions.

Commodore Nitin Kapoor, Deputy Commandant Naval War College welcomed the member participants through a welcome address post which the symposium was formally inaugurated by Rear Admiral Sai Venkat Raman, VSM, Commandant Naval War College, who also delivered the keynote address.

Commodore Shantanu Jha, Commodore (Foreign Cooperation), in his closing address, thanked all member countries for their valuable contribution during the Goa Maritime Symposium-21.